In the Shadows of Darkness
by Silverspegel
Summary: Jak has isolated himself from the world but a tragedy forces him to get back in contact with the friends he's left behind. A hidden weapon is the key to destroying a new threat. And emotions are hard to deal with. Post Jak X. Loads of refs.
1. No light found

He gasped for air in the very moment he broke the surface, small drops of water shooting out into the air in an explosion of glittering black pearls in the darkness enclosing him.

In an instant he fell back down into the abyss, only to get back up a bit slower this time, a shallow cough slipping past his bluish purple tainted lips. The cold was making him shiver, but he still took a moment to catch his breath as he with some effort kept him self floating by treading water.

Every muscle in his body ached for the precious gulps of oxygen that were finally getting back into his system with each trembling breath he took.

The throat hurt from swallowing some of the water down the wrong pipe and his head was spinning, from the time he'd forced himself to function without the air needed to do what he had done. But he was alive.

Realising he had to move on if he didn't want to find himself falling victim of the dark abyss once more, he started to slowly motion his aching arms and legs in a slow and forced swim.

The water gently clucked against a distant shore, the sound of his movements sending off echoes across the walls of the dark cave into which he'd entered.

Small shining needle points in the distance above glimmered every now and then, drops of fake starlight in the shape of clear crystals covering the ceiling.

He didn't want to think of the possibility that there were no way out but for the way he had just entered. Instead he steadily pushed himself to get closer to the end of this lake, despite the protesting muscles and the constant aching in his heart, reminding him of what had happened only minutes ago.

No, he didn't want to think about that.

Silence surrounded him, almost compact if it hadn't been for the sounds he made himself as he moved forward through the soft but excruciatingly cold masses of water.

But this silence wasn't welcomed. Instead, it was a painful reminder that things were not as they should be.

Once more he took a deep breath and bit his lip in a desperate try to avert his thoughts from the one thing he seemed to get back to thinking about.

Not yet, not ever did he want to remember that moment.

But he couldn't make it undone.

He couldn't erase the recent happenings from his memory and simply go on without ever looking back again. He wanted to, if just in order to ease the numbing pain of loss screaming out from his innermost centre of feelings, twisting and turning his insides at the very thought of remembering it all.

Again he forced back the whimper and the tears threatening to take him over completely and pushed harder at the water, resulting in getting himself forward a little bit faster, at the cost of his shoulders to scream out as he was pushing the limit of what strength he was able to present at the moment, but he welcomed the pain. The pain made him think about something else for a moment or two, becoming a refuge for his wounded soul as it travelled through his back muscles and twisted its way out through his arms as well.

He was badly wounded, leaving a trail of blood cut water – a smell of death lingering in the very molecules of the matter that was enclosing him into its icy grasp – and sending small shocks of stinging sensations from the open wounds to his brain.

But the wounds went far deeper than the ripped open skin that was painfully exposing his wounded flesh to the water, for a pain much more horrifying to him was growing from within.

Reaching the shore, he needed to keep still - his arms no longer sensed the cold of the water through the spreading numbness – in order to scan his surroundings. By now he was close to unconsciousness from the exhaustion and blood loss, not to mention the icy embrace of the fluid surrounding him. But he struggled to keep his senses as he tried to find a way up the ledge that made out the shore.

Squinting his eyes in a try to see more clearly through the dark, he realised he would have to heave himself up if he was ever going to get out of the water.

He took the deep breath needed to support the action and jumped as well as he was able to, reaching up his hands for the edge hovering above.

In the last second he managed to get a hold of the edge, grimacing as the weight of his body suddenly pulled at his fingers and made the sockets of his shoulders pop at the weight pressing shoulders and upper arms as far apart as it was possible without dislocating, but he didn't lose his grip.

Using a swinging motion of his lower body and trying to summon some aiding strength from every muscle in him, he pulled hard and slowly managed to crawl up over the edge, breathing hard and shaking violently in every limb as he finally could fall down on the cold stone floor for a much longed for relief of pressure on his already worn body.

The darkness and silence lulled him into a feverish calmness he only half-heartedly tried to fight back. He knew there was something he should be remembering, but having the feeling it was something he rather didn't think of, he gave in to the pleasant numbness that was spreading through his muscles and bones as the shivers faded.

Slowly, he closed his stinging eyes and dozed off into the forgetfulness of a dreamless sleep.

---

The light hurt his eyes as soon as he opened them.

He instantly closed them against the harassing brilliance of the world that surrounded him and tried to recollect his thoughts.

The drowsiness of sleep still had him partially in its grip, causing him to wonder where he was and why he was feeling so bad.

Any movement he tried sent a shrill of pain through stiff muscles, even a slight movement of his head gave off a thunder of aches rummaging around inside his scalp, nausea being dangerously close to overwhelming him.

A weak moan escaped his mouth and he could hear someone moving close by.

Something in his memory was ringing a warning bell as the soft sound caught his attention. He was supposed to be alone, wasn't he?

Then, in a matter of seconds, the entire barrier holding back his memory caved in and the recent events flooded him with all the feelings belonging to them.

With a violent jerk he was wide awake and sitting upright, chocked at the insight his memory had brought him. His heart was racing as he tried to blink away the tears clouding his vision, as the brightness of his surroundings once more intruded on his eyes ability to adjust to the light.

Through a mental daze he realised he was placed in a bed, all though he knew very well he'd fallen asleep on the floor of a dark cave. Bandages kept the wounds closed, in some places aided by rough stitching.

The questions instantly started to crowd inside his already confused mind and served to make him even more upset.

Where was he? How had he gotten there? What had happened to him after he fell unconscious? Who had put him there in the bed? Who was it he had heard moving around close by? Why couldn't he see?

The last of these questions faded away on its own as he slowly regained his eyesight after the first blinding moment of awakening.

"You really should consider lying down a little while longer," someone said beside him and he quickly turned to see who had spoken.

The movement made black spots appear in the corners of his view and his head felt like it suddenly had started to spin violently. He was falling backwards from the dizziness, but someone caught him halfway and helped him lie down more gently.

He closed his eyes to still the movements.

"I told you to stay calm," the voice reprimanded him, the hint of empathy taking the edge off the words spoken.

"You really shouldn't have tried what you did," the voice continued slowly. A cool hand was gently put on his forehead and made him defy the nausea building up inside and open his eyes once again.

"I had to," he managed to whisper with a hoarse voice that pushed its way through his throat with the smooth gentleness of a bundle of rough sandpaper.

"Why?" the voice asked in a calm manner, as if the mere thought of defying its advice was so absurd, that it made the person speaking curious as to what reason this young man might have had to do so.

The wounded turned his eyes towards the speaker and thought he vaguely recognised the white face of his company.

"I couldn't breathe," he said slowly, the sandpaper scratching as he did. "The other way… closed off."

"But why were you in the water to begin with? What reason had you to enter the cave?"

But this the wounded man didn't answer. Instead he searched his memory for the face he saw in front of him, trying to figure out why it seemed familiar when the voice did not.

"Do I… know you?" he asked.

"No," the other answered with a slight shaking of the head. "But I know you, brave one. You know of others like me, I'm sure. This is not the first time you have come across one of our temples."

Finally the memory clicked in place as the image of another similar face showed in his mind.

"You're… a monk…Seem..?"

"Yes, I know of Seem. She is the one who first informed me of your person, brave one. My name is not important, but if you must, you can call me Keem. I found you dead to the world in the caves, close to the embrace of eternity. I brought you here to save your life," the monk explained slowly. "Now, please, tell me what has happened to you? You must understand my request as honest and important. If something is awry in the water beneath our temple, the cause of the disturbance must be taken care of."

"It's…taken care of."

The monk wrinkled his forehead in questioning, but remained silent as he waited for the other man to explain himself further.

"That's what… closed the way out," he finally managed to say and produced a deep sigh that brought a wince on his face as it made him cough.

Keem looked at the weak figure of a man lying in the bed, drained of all the strength and life force that the monk had expected to find in such a person, being the hero of not only an entire people, but also the world of life.

So this is the man whom not even the dark makers could crush? A lost soul who can barely move or talk.

But instead of speaking his doubt, the monk just nodded silently at what had been said. He would get a better description once the hero had recovered. What mattered now, as the feared threat apparently was no longer a subject, was that the young man regained his strength.

"You need rest now. I will leave you alone for a while," Keem said in a soft voice and started to move away, when he was stopped by a slight tug at his sleeve.

The monk turned around and looked at the hand holding on to the fabric.

"Did you…find anyone…anyone else?" The man's voice sounded desperate, close to breaking with the emotion that showed clearly in his eyes, seemingly clinging on to a last hope.

Keem truly wished he could answer yes on the question, but knew that it wouldn't be true. As he shook his head he saw this last hope leave the man's face. His strength seemed to falter and the head fell heavily back onto the pillow, a pain of the heart clearly displayed in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," was all that Keem managed to say as comfort for the young man. "I will leave you now, brave one, but I will be back later with some food."

The monk had almost reached the door, when he was stopped once more, this time by the sound of the other's voice.

"What did you say?" Keem asked and turned back around to face the wounded.

"Don't call me that."

"Then, what name do you prefer I call you?"

"My name. Just, call me…by my name."

"As you wish, Jak."

Keem bowed slightly and then finally left the room.

Jak stared up at the ashy white ceiling, not caring what he saw.

His body ached, yes. But he welcomed the feeling of the physical aching and stinging sensations in his skin, muscles and bones. He even wished for it to be even greater than it already was, in order to drown out the other pain harbouring in his heart and midsection.

As the sorrow broke through his efforts to keep it down, the tears started to flow down his face, a whimpering hick-up forcing its way through his throat at the same time as the shivers started over.

Through everything that had happened, he had never been alone.

He had never even imagined it possible to remain alive if the other didn't. Even during the two years they'd been separated by fate, he had kept himself alive merely due to the thought of getting back together again. And despite all that he had been forced to do after that, no matter how much he had hated himself for doing it, he had always been able to count on not having to face those terrors alone.

Until now.

The feeling of emptiness inside his chest told him that even the faint glimmer of hope he had produced had been fake and simply a last try for denial to live a little bit longer within his mind. He was alone for real this time.

There is no coming back from falling off a cliff ending in a bottomless abyss of darkness.

Jak knew this.

But he wanted it to be otherwise.

He wanted it badly and cursed under his breath as his tears flowed freely, soaking the rough fabric of the pillow cover and leaving a taste of bitter salt in his mouth as a few streams found their way to his lips.

But no matter how much he wished for it to be different, the truth was still that his friend was irreversibly gone. And he hadn't saved him.

Had he only been a little faster, and had he only been able to use his light powers… But in order to slow time and fly, he would have had to have light eco within his veins. As it had been, he had not had enough. And the beast fighting him had made it sure that he had not been able to reach his friend in time by simply shoving him off in the other direction, into the water.

But that didn't matter now.

He hadn't saved him.

As he curled up into a trembling lump on the small bed, the brightly sunlit room faded away from Jak's vision as one scene kept repeating itself in front of his eyes.

A scene where he helplessly had to watch as the one person that meant more to him than anything else in the world was sent over the edge, screaming out for Jak, asking for him to save him.

"I can't..." the young man sobbed into his hands.


	2. Resurrection

_Ok, just wanna' say this is an on-going project, the longest I've written this far, so bare with me, k? If you see any mistakes or grammatical no-nos, I'd appreciate if you give me a heads-up on it. ^^ So, please, with this said; enjoy the story! Many chapters are to be expected. _

* * *

It hurt to breathe.

That was his first clear thought.

It hurt to move, heck it even hurt to think.

What had really happened? Where was he?

A flash of memory came forward from the depths of his mind as he tried to remember.

Oh, yeah.

The monster.

A really big, really angry and really strong thing, looking very much like a metalhead elder, something similar to a mutated version of Kor.

The thing had come bashing after them the very instant they'd gotten close to what Jak had figured must have been its nest. The good thing was that they'd had the car and a really big amount of ammunition. The bad thing was that they'd been forced to leave the vehicle pretty soon, due to the cave getting smaller as they tried to find a new escape route.

A very bad decision it turned out.

The beast had managed to corner them at a cliff, leaving them no other way out but the one it was blocking with its own body. And that was when things had gone bad.

Jak had done all in his power to keep the creature away and had emptied all his ammo while trying to hurt the seemingly invincible thing.

Daxter now wrinkled his nose in concentration.

Somehow he had fallen off Jak's shoulder some time in the midst of the battle. He remembered hitting the ground and being surprised as to how he'd gotten there.

Jak had called out for him, of course. And then…

The monster had turned its attention to Daxter instead. As if the darn thing could put things together and figure out stuff.

Daxter had only had a brief moment to collect his thoughts and realise what was about to happen, before the monster's tail had swept up against him and forcefully thrown him once more off his feet and into the air, only this time Daxter had noticed there wasn't going to be something to fall onto on the way down.

He had screamed.

And he had heard Jak cry out as the monster had hit the man as well.

Daxter knew he had been falling for quite some time and he had been able to think about all the horrors that awaited him, as well as what might have happened to Jak.

This was where his memory faltered a bit.

He knew from the feeling of cold and hard material against his back that he was laying on some sort of ground. But he couldn't remember hitting it. Besides, if he had hit it when falling from such a height, he wouldn't be thinking now, that was one thing he _knew._

Then what had happened?

He decided to open his eyes and have a look at his surroundings.

His eyes met with the darkness of the cave, only interrupted by small spots of light somewhere far up in the dome-like ceiling.

The silence was the first thing that got through to his confused thoughts.

There was no sound of fighting, no monster growling and no shouting, nothing.

Where was Jak?

The first explanation coming into his mind was immediately pushed away with a decisive force. He wouldn't think of that. Not ever.

Jak was alive.

He couldn't die.

Not because of some bad Kor-imitation hitting him.

No, he had to be somewhere else, probably looking for Daxter. Maybe Jak hadn't seen that he had been thrown off the cliff and was searching the cave for him?

Yes, that was an explanation that Daxter could endure. It sounded probable.

All though, a tiny thought in the back of his head started to remind him about the fact that he had seen Jak turn around, just before Daxter had fallen past the edge of the cliff. He _had_ to have seen him then.

Daxter shook his head violently to get rid of the negative thoughts, an action that caused his entire world to spin and made him nauseous enough to quickly turn around before he threw up whatever his stomach decided wasn't supposed to stay inside of him any more.

_Great, now my throat hurts too!_

He absentmindedly clutched his throat with one hand as he tried to steady himself into sitting upright.

Something felt awkward though. Apart from the throbbing in his head, that was.

He slowly moved his hand up to touch his right temple, the spot where the main cause of his headache seemed to be. He could feel dried blood beneath his fingertips, but that wasn't what got him confused. It was what he could feel beneath the crust of blood.

A lock of hair and bare skin.

_Holy…I'm dreaming, right?_

He quickly moved his hands up in front of his face and watched in awe as the realisation slowly dawned upon him.

"Bless the precursors…" he mumbled in a hushed voice.

Fearing this was still just a dream he slowly let his eyes take in the rest of his body, as much as he could see of it in the darkness. He slowly wiggled his toes.

"I'm not dreaming…"

Daxter felt like screaming out in joyful shouts, but he managed to keep the cheers in, remembering the possibility that there still might be some sort of monster inside the cave.

"I'm _me_!" he whispered to himself with glee, the smile stretching out in his face. He even managed to chuckle at the pure impossibility of that fact. He shouldn't be like this; he shouldn't even be alive, for all he knew! But still, here he was! And he wasn't two feet tall and covered with fuzz.

This thought made him realise something else. He was naked.

Just like when he had turned into a small orange animal, now when he was back to normal, the only pieces of "clothing" that the young man had on him was the brown fingerless leather gloves and the leather cap with his goggles on his head.

"Now, this _has_ to look silly," he muttered and took the cap off his head, letting his fingers comb through the thick and tangled hair as he did so. He still couldn't quite believe it had finally happened.

He searched his memory once more for any sort of clue to what had been the cause for his unexpected transformation back to normality.

Nothing but a slight tingle in his skin.

And so he looked at his surroundings.

A faint glimmer of something fluent caught his eyes not far away from where he sat.

He put the cap and goggles back onto his head and carefully crawled towards the glimmer, not daring to trust his legs just yet and not quite willing to accidentally fall back into whatever he had managed to crawl up from.

The smell reaching his nose made him freeze in his movements.

"N-no way…"

Dark eco.

There was a pool of it right in front of him.

And he was _alive_?

"Some freak of a miracle I turned out to be…" he breathed out in disbelief and backed away from the black pool.

He sat down and tried to think of what to do.

He obviously couldn't get back up the same way he'd gotten down. Sure, he could probably climb the cliff (at least he would have been able to as an ottsel), but to do that he first of all would have to swim across the puddle of liquefied darkness, and he wasn't going to try that.

Just because he survived it twice, it didn't mean he could survive it once more. Besides, the stuff stung something fierce.

The memory of the first shocking transformation made him tremble from the inside and out. It had taken him a very long time to stop dreaming of drowning in the burning darkness of that pool.

It had also taken him quite some time to adjust himself to the thought of no longer being the same person he had always been. Jak had helped with that though.

Daxter shook his head to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty that suddenly had come crawling back into his trail of thoughts as his memory had once more come across Jak.

He had to find a way out. He could worry about finding Jak later, when he knew where he was himself.

So, what other options for an escape did he have?

He turned around and tried to see what the cave looked like.

There was a small strip of a cliff edge leading to an entrance in the wall some way off to his left. Otherwise, he was trapped where he was on a small shelf sticking out above the eco.

Seeing no other alternative than to try for the only way out in sight, Daxter took a deep breath and pulled himself up on his feet. He tried a couple of wobbly steps, before he turned towards his challenge.

"Alrighty then, I simply have to think of something else than that lethal ooze underneath and I'll be fine," he said to himself in a try to collect some sort of courage.

"I can't believe I'm actually doing this…If I die, Jak is _so_ dead…"

Using what balance he could muster when being without the tail he had grown so used to, Daxter started so walk slowly along the thin edge with his back tight against the wall and eyes fixed on where he put his feet. He didn't see much, but what he was able to see he made sure to take use of.

Shaking like a leaf, partly from the cold draft of the cave and partly from exhaustion and fear of loosing his footing at the wrong moment, Daxter reached the dark hole in the wall and quickly jumped inside, glad to get further away from the ever so dreadful pit of dark eco.

After catching his breath and steadying himself somewhat, the young man even dared a small victory dance, feeling not so little proud of him self for having made it this far. Then he stopped and took a closer look at the tunnel he had entered.

"Now all I have to do, is find my way out of a black hole in, a black cave, surrounded by black water and infested with black monsters of doom…" he muttered slowly, just a little bit sarcastic. "Ah, well. Things can hardly get better, so why be picky?" he sighed and started to walk, one hand on the wall so as not to loose track of the direction he was supposed to go in.

He missed his fur. It had kept him warm. Or, at least warmer.

He missed warmth. And company. The safety of sitting on Jak's shoulder sheltered from the wind and protected from any danger within reach of his friend's eyes.

Once again he had to stop him self as the familiar uncertainty over his friend's fate came back to haunt him.

Yeah, he missed Jak. He had been spending about 90 percent of his days being in the guy's immediate presence for most of his life. It would be weird if he didn't miss him.

The feeling made him ache inside.

He bit his lip, for the first time noticing his protruding front teeth from childhood were back, and pressed back the tears threatening to break forth in his eyes.

There were a lot of things he missed at the moment.

A chilly breeze from the cave he had left behind made his skin crawl.

"I really miss my pants…"

----


	3. Owed allegiance

_OK, chapter three is up! I'm introducing a pair of OC's in this one; no big names and stuff, merely some extras to do some in-between stuff to make the story move forward a bit. Bare with me, and as with previous entries to FF on my part: I love comments and I appreciate some creative critisism too. I'm here to learn. Now, enjoy the story and tell me what you think! ^^ /Silverspegel_

* * *

"I can't believe we're doing this!"

"Oh, plug it, won't ya'?"

The two wastelanders were getting quite annoyed with one another.

"I mean," the first one continued, ignoring the other ones wish for silence," this is crazy! He's been gone for like, what, a year? And _now_ we're supposed to come here and search for him? Hell, he could be dead since way back for all I know and…"

Ka-click.

The movement was swift and the gun suddenly pointing at the man's face had made the point clear.

No. Talking.

The somewhat subdued warrior nodded his understanding and sunk a little bit deeper down into his seat.

"If the king tells ya' something, ya' just _do_ it, no questions asked. Ya' got that?"

Again, the first one nodded.

"Good. 'Sides, he wouldn't send us off to pick up a corpse. The guy's alive."

The small but tough car raced through the vast sand covered landscape, leaving a trail of dust in its tracks and scaring off leaper lizards with the mere sound of the engine as it rushed by the rare spots of green that the oasis made out to be in this heat devoured surroundings.

After a while the hushed one started to feel safe to talk again.

"Um, do you mind telling me where we're going?"

The driver looked at him with an annoyed expression, but answered in a calm voice as he returned his focus on the cream coloured dunes ahead of them.

"The king said we should try having a word with the monks. They apparently have a nick for knowing where to find things, and people as well."

The other one looked a little bit confused as he took in the surroundings.

"This isn't the way to the temple…"

"The king also said that we'd probably find Seem and a group of the monks on their way to the holy grounds. Some sort of ritual or another. We'll reach them in an hour or so."

And with that, the conversation was over.

-----

Seem looked the two men up and down with a troubled face.

Those wastelanders were of the tougher kind, the sort of soldiers that usually were sent out to take out metalheads or the random marauder.

They weren't just some messengers or escorts.

That's what made her hesitate in answering their request as to find out where to find the warrior they sought.

The new king had not been as close to the monks as had Damus, but Seem still thought of Sig as a respectable man, if but a little too uninterested when it came to religious matters.

The fact that he had sent his men to ask Seem for help meant something had gone wrong.

And this aspect of things demanded careful planning and meditation over the actions needed to perform. But time was brief at the moment – the warriors weren't of the patient kind, all though they didn't complain about waiting for the answer. That was mainly an act of respect for the monk and his colleagues.

But the request?

Seem let out a sigh, revealing her conflicting feelings towards the matter and slowly shook his head.

The warm desert wind pushed up some heated sand and moved it across the feet of the small group assembled in the outskirts of the oasis known as the holy grounds of the precursors. But the small group of monks didn't move, standing as statues with their eyes half closed, all attention directed towards the only two men without the painted face of the initiated.

The warriors were indifferent to the monks' attention, returning the attention with cold glares while the sweat was building up on their skin, standing in the desert sun without even looking for a shelter from the heat.

"Well?" the older of the wastelanders asked after another moment of silence, only slightly showing the agitation he was feeling over having to spend precious time just standing in wait for a monk to speak. "D'ya' know where he is, or not? Sorry to rush ya', your holiness, but we really don't have the time to wait all day."

Seem knew this. She only wished she could see what role Jak was going to have in the events coming, and most of all, she wished to know about those events. But nothing happened as she searched the realms of energy with his mind in a try to find the threads of destiny connected to the hero.

What would happen if she led them towards him and what would happen if he didn't? Could Jak prevent another catastrophe, or would he be the one creating it?

The reports she had received from Keem had troubled her, but they weren't detailed enough for Seem to easily make a decision she could feel comfortable with. But she had to say something.

Sometimes she really wished she hadn't been the one chosen to lead the monks of the wasteland. The responsibility was a heavy load to have put on one so young a person's shoulders.

But there was nothing she could do about that now. All she could do was to trust her intuition and her faith in the hero to come through just as brilliant as the last time.

After all, he was the son of a great king and the namesake of the greatest prophet of the precursors. There really shouldn't be any reason for Seem to hesitate in making this decision, but still she did. There was something in the reports from Keem that had started Seem when she had heard it. She just couldn't grasp the concept of what had made her react that way to hearing it.

The wastelanders who had spoken made an annoyed sound, disguised as a cough, telling Seem to make up her mind before she was forced to answer by the weapon hanging within reach of the scarred man's hand.

_Please, precursors, make me do the right thing._

"I know of where you could find Jak, yes," Seem finally answered the man and received a sigh of slight exasperation from the warrior, before she continued. "I wish I knew for what reason he is sought for with such haste, but as it is, I trust the king has good reasons to find him, and therefore I will help you."

"Finally," the other wastelander muttered and got a warning glare from the first one that stopped him from continuing his complaint of the wait.

Seem ignored the comment.

"Two days ago, Jak was found in the caves beneath the temple of the Lost Child, further north in the land, close to the Citadel Mountains. One of my brothers of the temple has been taking care of him since. You will find him there."

The wastelander seemed to evaluate the facts he was told and turned his eyes towards the north, seeking the far away purple-greyish silhouettes of the mountains on the other side of the forsaken desert land.

Seem noticed the hesitation in his eyes. It was going to be a long trip and it would be through mostly unknown territory.

"A word of advice on your journey," Seem added before the man could turn around and get into his vehicle, "drive during nights, when the heat isn't present, and rest during the midday."

"Thank you, your holiness, but we don't need the advice. We wastelanders know how to survive in the desert. It's our home, after all," the man answered and got into the car, signalling for the other to do the same.

"Then at least have in your thought not to force him to return. He has been through a lot and might be changed."

This made both of the wastelanders stop in their movements and look back at her with apparent curiosity, a feeling of alarm showing in their faces.

"What are you trying to tell us? He's alive, right?" the younger one said.

"Is he crippled in some way?"

Seem shook her head.

"I'm simply telling you to be gentle and patient. Change comes to us all with each experience we live through. He has been through something big enough to change anyone. What change there is, I can not tell you, but changed he will be when you find him."

The scarred one shook his head at this and started the car.

"I don't care. All I wanna' do is get him to Spargus, that's what I was sent out to do."

And with those words, he hit the gas pedal, accelerated and took off in a cloud of white sand, leaving the monks staring at the car disappearing towards the setting sun.

"What do you think the monk meant by 'changed'?" the younger of the wastelanders asked as the car took them further away from the oasis.

"How in the name of the precursors should I know? To me all this religious gibberish is nothing but mumbo-jumbo that sometimes happens to work," the scarred one answered in a low voice, lost in thoughts of the road they had ahead of them.

"Do you think she was trying to tell us something? You know, like warn us or something? I've heard stories about this guy…"

The scarred one hit the brakes hard and the other one was roughly thrown forward and would have collided with the sand some meters in front of them, if it hadn't been for the seatbelt he had absentmindedly put on. Now, all that happened was that the air was smacked right out of him in a painful blow across his chest by the same force of gravitation that would have sent him flying otherwise.

"Are you insane or something?!" he huffed out as soon as he could take a breath and keep the air in again. He rubbed his aching chest and grimaced at the throbbing pain in his head after the violent shake it had gone through. His companion stared at him until he had all his attention aimed at him.

"Don't, ever, _ever_, even come close to saying anything like that again, or you'll be sorry you were ever able to use that foul pit in your face for anything else but shoving down food," the scarred wastelander said in a voice vibrating with restrained anger.

With a fear of breaking any untold rule in this heated conversation, the younger of them collected his strength around the one question that was now begging to be asked.

"Erm, not that I mean to be rude, but what did I say that I shouldn't say again?"

The other man looked at him as if he was going to jump him with bared fangs in any moment and snorted at the question as he started the car once more and returned his eyes to the landscape in front of them.

"Jak is a greater hero than ya' could ever dream of coming close to even trying to be. He is worth hundreds of guys like you. Don't ya' ever talk shit like that about someone ya' don't know anything about. Ya' ain't even worthy of kissing the ground he walks on, ya' got that?"

The younger one slowly sunk deeper down in his seat, feeling but a little intimidated by the other's tone of voice.

"Yeah, I think I got the message. No more talking."

The scarred one only listened with one ear to what the other one had said. He was lost in a memory he hadn't wanted to ever think of again, a memory of a time when the metalheads had swarmed the lands close to the walls of the desert city of Spargus.

He and a group of other wastelanders had been caught in a sandstorm and had waited it out in a cave close by the city, unknowing of the nest of monsters that had been notified of their presence the very instant they had entered the temporary shelter. The attack had been a complete surprise to them all, two of them falling victims to the monsters within the first second of the fight.

They had all fought the best they could with what weapons they had brought with them for the mission they'd been sent out to do, before the storm had forced them into the waiting arms of a family of sharp needle like claws and drool covered fangs. But the ammunition wouldn't last forever, that they had known, and desperation had started to fill them as they had realised that they were doomed. Either they'd get killed by the storm or by the monsters of the cave.

That was when one of the metalheads had suddenly shrieked in surprise, as it seemingly without reason, had fallen to the ground, the shining gem popping loose even before the body had landed, causing the beast to dissolve in mid-air and leaving nothing but a few puddles of dark eco on the spot where it had been standing.

A grey and white figure had moved fast through the group of fighting wastelanders and in an instant it had decimated the monsters' numbers into only a hand full. Dark eco had crawled towards the new fighter like needles to a magnet and the air had been filled with the smell of dissolving flesh. A display of fearsome strength had flowed from the warrior as he had finished the monsters off with his bare hands, crackling with purple lightning that had been reflected in pitch black eyes.

As the last metalhead had fallen, the fighter had stopped in his movements and turned towards the wastelanders, who instinctively had grasped their weapons in a meaningless effort to protect themselves, in case the beast had decided to attack them as well. But someone had spoken and the group of warriors had finally recognised the man in front of them as colour had slowly crept back into his skin and characteristic two-toned hair.

The wounds pouring his blood onto the dusty cave floor had made the other wastelanders finally react and as they'd taken care of their wounded saviour, they had all promised to always support him, thanking him for their saved lives.

The talking animal that had somehow been with Jak through the entire thing had told them of how they'd picked up a signal from one of their beacons, probably activated by one of them in pure fear as the monsters had attacked. Jak had risked his own life to save them. And he had won. No matter how it had happened, that was worth something to all of them.

And now Jak was in need of help, if he had interpreted the words of the monk correctly.

The scarred wastelander squeezed harder at the steering wheel and pushed the gas a little harder.

He wasn't about to leave him waiting.


	4. What hurts the most

"At least you should try eating something. You will need the strength if you're ever going to heal properly."

Keem took away the untouched soup and dry bread and left it for a passing novice to dispose of. As he turned back to the man lying curled up in the bed, he sighed. These last three days he had sighed a lot more than he ever had thought possible.

Jak hadn't moved an inch since the first day, and he had only spoken two times since. Each time it had been nothing but a whispered 'no' as answer to the question whether or not he was feeling any better.

Jak stared into the wall, seeing all but the white stone as he forced himself to keep awake. He was dead tired in a way he hadn't experienced since the very last days he had spent in the prison of Haven City. But he didn't want to fall asleep if he could prevent it.

As soon as his eyes closed he knew he would see it all again. He just couldn't get past that moment, no matter how hard he tried to put it behind himself. He knew he should probably feel lucky to even be alive and move on, but he couldn't summon the will to do it. He simply couldn't find any reason to do so anymore. Not now.

He only realised he was crying again as he could taste the salty tears in his mouth. He blinked hard to clear his vision, but he didn't do anything to dry the tears. It was no use.

Keem was taken aback a little by what he saw as he leaned forward to pull the cover over the apathetic man's shoulders. He hadn't made a sound, not even a movement. But tears were suddenly flowing freely from his eyes.

The monk took a step back, before he once more approached Jak.

Silently he sat down on the bed and put a comforting hand on the other's shoulder. Jak didn't even seem to notice Keem's presence.

"Whatever the loss, know this; time may not take away the pain completely, and wounds may never heal up into anything less than scars, but life goes on. It's hard to live with the memory of the ones we hold dear as they are not with us, but at least their memory is kept alive within our hearts for as long as we live."

The words had come instinctively. It was a passage in one of the older prophecies kept in the archive of their temple. It was part of a hymn to a fallen soldier, telling the ones who had loved him in life to go on loving him instead of brooding over events that couldn't be changed.

Suddenly Jak moved, stiff and fitful movements after having lain still for such a long time, but he moved. He turned around to lie on his back and directed his teary and swollen eyes towards the monk.

"You don't understand."

Keem blinked at the words spoken. The man was looking haggard and not at all threatening, but his voice had carried a message filled with a rage only achievable by someone mourning over an unjustified death, seething with lust for a revenge that couldn't be.

"Then make me understand," Keem answered softly. "I want to help you, if you will only let me."

When Jak didn't answer him, Keem continued.

"Begin with telling me what happened. Who is it that is worthy of such tears and heartache that you don't even think it important to take care of the person who is still alive?"

Jak slowly closed his eyes and turned his face away.

Just when Keem was about to leave, thinking the man had returned to his state of nothingness, when Jak spoke again.

"I didn't save him."

The whisper was barely audible, but Keem managed to hear it and kept still, so as not to miss the rest of it.

"I couldn't save him," Jak repeated, voice trembling. "I was right there and I just couldn't… reach him…"

Suddenly Keem felt like he was intruding on something private, like he was doing something forbidden by listening to the words coming from the wounded man's mouth. The feeling was so strong that he even thought about excusing himself and leaving him alone with his feelings, but he knew that would probably be a fatal mistake, so he stayed.

"I'm sure you did what you could…"

"No! He shouldn't even have been there! I was supposed to protect him, and he… I…I never got the chance to… He was my best friend…the only one who ever understood me…who never left me… and he's, gone…I can't… I never… I didn't…" The hacked off speech faded into a low mumbling as Jak once more curled up and rolled to lie on his side.

Keem had heard the words and he had heard what hadn't been spoken and he suddenly felt like crying him self. He wouldn't wish this man's fate to anyone, to lose someone so dear in a way that offered no closure. To be forced to always regret words never said and actions never taken, before it was too late.

The young monk left Jak to his pains with a soft pat on his shoulder, as if to say "I'm here if you need me".

Jak noticed the monk leaving, but he didn't really care whether he was alone or not.

He felt cold, like he was never going to feel warm again. But he also knew the chill didn't come from the air, but from inside himself. He knew this, but he couldn't stop it. He didn't feel justified to ever feel warm again, having betrayed the one person he should never have left alone. No matter the cause, he should have foreseen it, should have been able to avoid it.

But he hadn't.

He had had the chance to do it, to save his friend another day. To make up for all that he had done for him. To tell him what he meant to him. To tell him…everything.

Emptiness filled the silence and made it unbearable, as his chest felt ready to cave in by the pressure of the vastness of his sudden realisation of what he really was feeling.

"Oh, precursors…why?" he managed to say in a choked up whisper as he gave in to sleep.

-----

Daxter looked up at the setting sun.

He was really getting worried now.

He had been waiting by the entrance to the cave for two days now. This wasn't good. Jak should have found him by now.

He knew he couldn't just sit there and wait for forever, but he simply couldn't make himself move. He was too tired and too hungry. And he was afraid for what he might find if he went back inside the cave to look for his friend.

He had managed to get out of the cave by simply putting one foot before the other even after he first thought of giving up. As he finally had reached the free air of the desert evening, he had not cared about the chill against his naked skin, all too happy to still be alive.

But after the first night he had searched for a better shelter and had come across something reminding him of ruins, but far too crumbled by the merciless hand of time and the sharp seeds of sand washing over the metal and stone for an innumerable amount of times. What was important was that in this area he had actually found a piece of some old cloth, which he had instantly used to make himself feel a little more comfortable about moving around. Meaning he was now wearing it tied around his waist as some sort of bohemian skirt.

He had kept to the stone wall of the mountain that harboured the cave he had so recently escaped and somehow he had actually managed to find the very same entrance that he and Jak had used when they'd first gotten there the day before.

Ascertained that Jak would find his way out to this very spot, Daxter had placed him self at the cave's opening and waited.

But Jak hadn't showed up.

This probably meant that something had happened to him.

Something bad.

Daxter shook his head and tried to get rid of the thoughts of Jak lying unconscious and bleeding somewhere in the darkness while he himself sat out in the sun doing nothing to help him.

He could probably get back inside the cave and go search for him. But what could he possibly do? How was he to find him? He could walk past Jak in the darkness without knowing it and then what would he do?

He had to get help, but how? He was in the middle of the desert, for crying out loud! He wouldn't last a day out in the scorching sun if he set off for the closest habitation he could think of, let alone manage to get even close to the place before he was toast for the vultures.

In the end, sitting outside the cave was the best option, but he didn't like it. Not just because of the hot days and the cold nights, or because of the steadily increasing hunger he was feeling, but also because he wanted to know what had happened.

He wanted to make himself useful, for once. If only he had kept with him a beacon. He could have turned it on and then some wastelanders would have shown up in no time to pick him and Jak up.

Assuming they still recognised their signal that was.

But the beacon was still in the car, and the car was left in the cave.

Wait… There _was_ something he could do!

Daxter scrambled back onto his feet and steadied himself by putting a hand to the stonewall on his left side as he felt a bit dizzy for getting up to fast.

As soon as he felt ready, he went inside the cave, hand still on the wall for orientation's sake. He might not be able to find Jak in the darkness, but he would be able to find the car that was big enough to partly block the hallway at the place where they'd left it.

And if he found the car, that meant he would find the beacon, and that meant help.

He just really hoped that there weren't any more of those huge metalheads left in there and that the car hadn't been moved by the beast that had chased after them at the time.

With this in mind, he quickened his pace and kept his eyes wide open in the search for anything moving in the shadows surrounding him.

Echoes of dripping water met him from a distance, sounding like steps by feet garnished with clicking talons against the sand and stone of the floor. But by repressing a shudder and the rising panic in his chest, Daxter moved on through the darkness, knowing he had absolutely no chance whatsoever against the monsters that could still be hiding inside the mountain.

But he also knew he had to do this.

He had to find some help or else he might never be able to find Jak.

There was a stabbing pain in his heart at the last thought.

No, he had to stop thinking in those directions. He _was_ going to find him! Jak was still alive, that he was pretty certain of. And if Jak needed Daxter to make this one easy thing, then Daxter would prove himself worthy of the assignment. He simply had to.

'Cause if he didn't, then how would he ever be able to face Jak afterwards? Jak, the hero, the one guy who actually liked him right from the start. His best friend, who had single-handedly saved him so many times he had lost the count.

Daxter knew he owed him everything and more and for that he was grateful, even more than Jak probably knew, 'cause Daxter just couldn't get the words out when the occasion came up.

How do you tell someone that he's your hero, without making it sound too cliché and all fairytale-princess-sweet?

And now he had a chance to repay him for all the heroism, even if just by a little act of courage, walking alone and half-naked through a cave infested with all things dark and evil.

Despite his fears, Daxter managed to reach the car without any mishaps.

The vehicle was standing where they'd left it, carelessly parked in front of an opening too small for it to pass through.

Daxter would probably have walked straight past it though, had he not bumped his knee into one of the tires.

"Ouch! By the mother of all things small and fuzzy…" he cursed under his breath and forced himself not to jump around like crazy on one foot. Instead he examined the car with his hands, and finding the front seat, he climbed in and started his search for things that could be of use.

Jak's morph gun was of course not present.

Daxter knew Jak had taken it with him as they'd left the car. He also knew the gun was hopelessly lost somewhere underneath that same black pool of ooze that he himself had fallen into a short while later as he had followed the gun over the edge.

He kept rummaging about in the backseat and actually found the bag containing a change of clothes for Jak – the greatest treasure he'd found that far.

He quickly sneaked into the slightly too big pants and the sleeveless tunic and placed the provisional "skirt" as a scarf around his neck, before he continued the search.

Being dressed again, wearing clothes for the first time in all too many years, made him feel almost giggly with the mere feeling of the fabric against his skin and he had some trouble maintaining the seriousness of his mission in his mind.

Finally, as he was about to give up, he found an electrical torch, stuck underneath the driver's seat. He picked it up and, wonder above all wonders, it came alight as he pushed the button.

"I'm actually starting to feel lucky," he mumbled as he let the light sway across the seats.

Finding nothing in the backseat resembling of the small metallic device that was the old beacon, he moved back to the front seats.

As he, in a last try to find what he was looking for, opened the glove compartment, he was almost attacked by the water flask that fell out and landed between his bare feet.

Suddenly he felt the hunger which he had hid from himself during the last two days scratching at the inside of his stomach and giving up a noise that Daxter was sure would give off an echo throughout the entire cave.

He picked up the flask and as he found it to be half full, he greedily gulped down the remaining water, feeling the hunger lessen for a bit. Sadly it actually made him thirstier. But, as the water was gone, he threw the flask on the floor again and looked into the compartment from where it had emerged, and there, in the far back, was the beacon.

"BINGO!" he cheered in a hushed voice, still perfectly aware of the risk that something he didn't want to come running could hear him.

He reached out and grabbed the small circular piece of technology and pushed the activation button. As a reassuring red light started to blink, Daxter managed to smile, relieved that his plan had worked. Now all he had to do was to wait.

He looked at the driver's seat, touched the steering wheel and inspected the pedals with the aid of the torch he held in his hand.

He could probably figure out how to drive this thing. But then he looked at the surroundings and gave up the thought. Given the car's placing, and the shallow tunnel he had come through, he would be forced to drive backwards almost the entire way, and he simply didn't find that thought the least tempting.

So, in the end, he decided to leave the car and get back outside. He figured it would be easier, for whoever it was that picked it up, to read the signal if he was outside the cave.

Besides, he really didn't want to sit around waiting in the darkness without knowing if something was creeping up on him from out of the shadows and the torch was already getting weaker, its batteries being old and worn.

As he reached the outside for the second time since he had been turned back to normal, Daxter guzzled for the air with new reassurance that he had done a good job.

As the stars came alight on the darkening night sky, he sat down and looked up at the vast space above, clutching the beacon in his hand as if it was a lifebuoy and he wished, upon whatever star that might be falling somewhere, for Jak to be safe and for help to come soon.

Sometime during the night, Daxter fell asleep. Exhausted and fatigued by hunger and thirst, he never noticed when the beacon slipped out of his hand.

Neither did he notice that it suddenly stopped blinking, somewhere around the sunrise, as the old and battered mechanism gave in.


	5. A man broken

"Really, I swear, I'm pretty sure I saw the beacon-spotter blink!"

The older warrior looked tired and now he turned towards his partner with an almost despondent look in his eyes. He really didn't like that man.

"And for the eleventy-fourth time I'm telling ya' that it's not blinking anymore – which means it's been taken care of already."

The other one looked a little disappointed at this response, but he got the message and didn't push it any further.

"Now, we have a job to do, d'ya' intend to help with that?" the scarred man continued and jumped out of the car. Without waiting for the other one to answer, he started to walk up to the great gate of the temple.

"Hey, wait up!" his partner yelped and got himself out of the car and ran after him.

"You know, Garrack, you really need to work on your friendliness. One of these days you might actually hurt someone…" the younger one started, but his voice traded off as he saw the look given to him by the other wastelander.

"If ya' just shut up from now on, Tuz, ya' might actually still be alive when we return to Spargus," Garrack growled, his whole person seething with dislike towards the other man.

Tuz gulped down the reply he had had in mind and simply nodded his understanding.

The older of the two walked the few steps left between them and the huge gate, and managed to use the equally large door knocker that was hanging in the middle of the gate.

The egg-shaped orange metal block made a surprisingly loud and simultaneously dull sound as it made contact with the metal of the gate, and soon enough, a smaller section of the gate swayed open, revealing a young monk novice who had answered their call as he'd passed by.

"I welcome thee to our temple, travellers from afar," the boy said in a soft voice as he bowed to the wastelanders. "How may we be at your service? Do you wish to enter, or are you passing by?"

"We, uhm, wish to enter," Garrack said. "We're looking for a man. A warrior. We were told he could be found here," he explained slowly, a little taken aback at the calm and debonair manner of the young boy standing in front of him, face painted in a stark white colour crossed with red and yellow spots. He caught himself thinking of the children back at Spargus, and that this boy should be playing with his friends instead of wasting his youth on this religious nonsense.

The boy smiled slightly and nodded, before he stepped aside and showed the wastelanders in through the door.

"I believe we have in our care a man such as the one you are seeking. I will take you to Keem, he will know where to find the man, if indeed he is the warrior you are looking for."And with those words, he turned around and motioned for the two men to follow him.

He lead them across a vast courtyard in which centre a fountain was throwing a thin glittering stream of pearly water high up into the hot air of the early forenoon.

The mere sound of the water plummeting back down made Tuz thirsty, but he knew better than to tempt Garrack's patience further by whining for a sip. Instead he looked longingly at the fountain as they passed it and left the desire to drink from its water rest until later.

Once indoors, they walked through a maze of corridors, framed by white stonewalls covered in old religious symbols or illustrations of prophecies, or yet again, the heroics of Mar.

The novice leading them never once hesitated at where to turn, what stairs to climb or which corridor to choose, but both of the wastelanders knew that none of them would ever manage to find their way out of the complex labyrinth without help.

Just as Tuz started to wonder whether they were ever going to find the end of this tour, their young guide stopped in front of an old door made of red wood and knocked once at it.

They could all hear someone moving behind the door, and soon it was opened by another monk, this one a bit older than the guide and already an established monk. He looked at the visitors with a sad expression in his eyes that made even Garrack feel a little uneasy. It was just as if he was supposed to feel guilty of a crime by simply standing there in the brightly sunlit corridor.

"Good morning, warriors of Spargus. I suppose you're here looking for Jak?"

Garrack nodded silently.

"Then your help is no longer needed," the monk said turned towards the novice, who bowed down deep before he left. The monk turned back towards the wastelanders.

"You follow me, and I'll take you to your hero," he said, intonation on the last word telling the other men of a strange sadness that was hard to hide. But before either of them had the chance to ask about it, the monk started walking and they hurried their steps so as not to lose sight of him.

"You should know one thing, desert hunters," he said as soon as they came up close to him again, "your search may have been in vain, for the man you were set out to find is no more the same as the one remembered by your people."

Now Garrack was starting to get even more uneasy.

Monks had never been a group of people he had liked, being a bit doubtful as he was when it came to anything involving religion, but being here in this ancient temple and having to listen to these malefical riddles of the monks made him feel a little bit too eager to hit someone.

"Yes, about that, Seem said something quite like it," he said, taking a deep breath in the process, as he tried to keep his voice calm and controlled. "Just what do ya' mean about him being 'changed'? Ya'll make it sound as if he were dead or something."

The monk didn't answer at first, but then he stopped and turned to face them.

"It means that he is no longer the one you seek, but he is still alive. There are wounds that doesn't heal too easy, and wounds like that does have a serious impact on the person they are inflicted to."

Now this didn't make Garrack feel any better, and he noticed by Tuz's expression that he didn't get much of the explanation either. But the monk ignored their silent questions.

"I beg of you to confront him gently, I don't know just how your appearance might affect his mood or health, "he said, and hearing no arguments, he turned his back towards them once more and continued the walk through the corridor.

The now troubled wastelanders followed the monk in silence as he climbed another set of stairs.

After another turn into a new hallway, they finally stopped at a door that to the warriors looked exactly like any other door they had passed.

The monk made them stay outside while he went in before them to see if Jak was awake.

Garrack could hear the monk whispering something on the other side of the door, and after a short moment he opened the door anew and showed them in.

Garrack didn't know what he had expected to find in the room, but he was relieved at finding the young man lying seemingly at ease in a freshly made bed. Then he noticed the red spotted bandages covering his arms and the part of his chest showing above the border of the cover. He then saw the barely healed scar on his cheek and the dark markings around his eyes. The green rooted blond hair laid drenched in sweat across the pillow and the clear blue eyes were staring unseeing up at the ceiling, and as he looked closer, Garrack noticed that the poor man was actually shivering as if he was…afraid.

Tuz had taken a step backwards the moment he spotted Jak.

_This_ was the man they'd been sent out to find? This shivering wreck of a man was the hero everyone was talking about? The man was broken, that was clear to anyone seeing him.

Never mind the horrible wounds and the old scars that littered his skin; it was the look in the guy's eyes that scared Tuz. That blank expression alone told him all he needed to know.

This man was no hero. He was a wreck. A potential psychopath, maybe, but _not_ a hero. It didn't matter what anyone said, he sure would not want to put his trust in this man to do anything.

Garrack noticed his partner's apparent disliking of the man they'd come so far to find.

He was almost ready to join him, had it not been for the promise he had once made. A promise to a young man who had barely turned eighteen at the time; a man filled with rage, delusion and a fierce power of will combined with an all destructing force, giving his skin an electrifying glow. A monster controlled, no, _kept_ on the right side of the line, by an undying desire to help the ones he thought of as his friends.

The scarred wastelander took another step towards the bed, fighting his doubts that this was really the same man he remembered from that time.

And then it hit him. Something was wrong. Something was missing.

He looked around in the room as he tried to define what this could be, and then finally let his eyes once more rest upon the immovable man in the bed.

The room was dead silent.

He couldn't remember a single moment of silence in the presence of this man, but as he thought about it, he realised it hadn't been because of the man himself, but rather because of the one always following him around; that talking animal he never seemed to be without.

Garrack pushed his eyebrows together in deep thought and turned towards the monk who was still standing silently by the door.

"Where's the rat?" he asked slowly.

The monk looked at him as if he was asking for an ice cube.

"What do you mean…" the monk started to ask, but cut himself off and stared at Jak. Garrack turned his attention back at the former hero and was a bit chocked to see that the young man was looking at him.

And what a look he was given by those eyes of cold sapphire!

The chill spreading in his bones told him that this man was still capable of releasing the beast that had killed a small pack of bloodthirsty metalheads with its bare hands. And Garrack suddenly got the feeling he had said something bad.

"Go. Away."

Two simple words. But charged with the electricity of dangerously explosive aggravation, they seemed like sharp knives pointed at your throat by the hands of a maniac.

Garrack took three steps back and placed himself next to the monk.

"What did you say?" the monk asked him, equally terrified and curious at the unexpected development of things.

"Nothing! I just asked ya' where that rat was!"

Jak stirred in his bed.

"What rat?" the monk asked, a dawning realisation starting to take place in his face.

Garrack suddenly got the feeling he was being mocked. Even Tuz was looking at him in a strange way.

"Ya' know, the little orange squirt that never shuts up? He's never far away from the guy and could drive ya' nuts with his yapping…"

Garrack barely had time to duck for the stone plate of untouched food that came flying at him from the other end of the room with a force that made it shatter into an innumerable amount of small fragments as it hit the wall with a loud crash.

Tuz was suddenly standing out in the corridor and the monk was staring at the one who had thrown the plate, scared and amazed at the same time.

Garrack slowly turned to face Jak.

The young man's clear blue eyes were flashing in purple and he was shaking with anger, eyes fixed upon the older wastelander.

"What did I say? What…"

"SHUT UP!"

Jak's voice broke and his raged scream died in a violent coughing fit. But as soon as he had managed to clear his throat, Jak once more stared at Garrack.

"You just…shut up! Alright? Just…"

"I don't get it! Jak, c'mon! Just tell me what the hell I said!" Garrack yelled back, feeling a little safer as he noticed that, in spite of his outburst, Jak was still weak from his wounds and the fact that he hadn't moved from his bed added to the feeling of being safe to argue back at him.

"Me and Tuz here haven't come all this way to get ya', just so we can be yelled at for no reason! Heck, I'd actually rather speak with the rat than with you, the way you're acting!"

This comment earned him a ceramic mug sweeping painfully close by his left ear as he dove downwards just in time for it to miss him and come to the same end as the plate before it.

"_Stop calling him that!_" Jak hissed. "He's _not_ a _rat_! He's a _person_, just like you and me! No, better than any of us! You got that?"

Garrack looked up from his hunched down position and had to stop himself from pinching his arm. Because what he saw made him doubt his own eyes.

There, in front of him, sat the aggravated man, clutching the bedpost to keep upright and panting for air. All of that was expected, but the eyes directed at him were filled with something more than this sudden rage, something that made the scarred wastelander's own hardened heart ache. And in those eyes, tears were filling up and finding their way down Jak's cheeks, without him bothering to dry them away.

_He's crying?! What in the name of the precursors…?_

The anger was fading away from Jak's face as his breathing turned into some sort of choked off hick-ups.

"He was better…" Jak mumbled in between the sobbing sounds of his uneven breathing, forcing Garrack to listen harder in order to hear what he said.

"He was better… than anyone of you, better than me… You just don't get it… No one did. He was all I had! He…he saved my life…so many times… And I…aw, just go. You wouldn't understand…"

Listening to this hacked off speech, Garrack managed to put things together. He pulled himself back up on his feet and placed himself in front of the broken man staring down in the floor as tears flowed freely down the face.

Jak looked up in surprise as the heavy hand was placed on his shivering shoulder. The scarred warrior was looking down at him with a compassionate face that he hadn't expected.

"For what it's worth, I apologise for causing ya' any pain, 'cause I didn't mean to harm ya'. But ya' really need to put yourself together, Jak. You're a warrior, right? A wastelander! We all lose someone in the end, ya' can't help it. But ya' need to move on!"

"Why? What for? What good am I to anyone? Just leave me be!" Jak protested and tried to shake off Garrack's hand from his shoulder, but he was getting weaker by the minute, now that his anger was no longer there to give him the strength he needed to stay upright.

"'_Cause people are depending on ya' to stay strong, damn it_! Don't be such a cry-baby! Did ya' ever figure we might be here for some reason? The king sent for us to find ya'! Doesn't that matter to ya' at all?"

At the mentioning of Spargus' leader, Jak perked his ears for a moment.

"Sig? What did he want _me_ for?"

"Beats me," Garrack answered honestly and finally let go of Jak's shoulder.

Jak slowly slumped down on one side, exhausted, but not willing to fall asleep just yet.

"But he wants ya' back in Spargus as soon as possible. I told him I'd get ya' there, so here I am. I don't intend on letting him down, 'cause that wouldn't be fun explaining to him. And ya' aint letting him down either, I know that."

He turned to look once more at Jak and was met with a despondent sigh.

"Right. Whatever. Just…let me rest for a bit," Jak mumbled into his pillow, and by that he was fast asleep, having spent all his spared energy on the short display of anger and hopeless rage.

The monk silently motioned for Garrack to come with him outside. The wastelander figured he had nothing to object towards that suggestion and did as he was told.

As soon as the door was closed behind them, the monk and Tuz both turned towards Garrack. But while the latter of them stayed at simply silently expecting him to explain everything, the first decided to bring up his questions at once.

"Now, please tell me what just happened."

Garrack tried to find an easy way of answering that question. Instead, he decided to ask the monk something.

"If ya' just tell me why the heck ya' didn't warn me 'bout the emotional trauma in there, I might decide to answer that question. What in the name of the precursors has happened to him? And most importantly, to that talking animal of his?"

The monk thought in silence for a moment.

"I'm not sure what happened exactly, only that I found him nearly dead down in the caves. I've managed to make him tell me there was some kind of monster down there which he fought and managed to kill. What more happened, I don't know. Yes, I did recently learn he had lost someone dear to him, but anything closer as to what happened exactly or who this person was, he hasn't revealed to me before today. I never would have thought him capable of…" he paused for a moment, trying to find the right words, but gave it up, "…_that_. And also, I have never heard of a talking animal being with him."

Garrack knew this had to be true. As much as he was annoyed by the monks' habit of speaking in riddles, he knew they didn't ever lie.

"Then I'll tell ya' this; the guy's a wreck because of that animal not being here. If I'm getting it right, I'm guessing the reason for the fella' to be missing, is that he's dead, and that sort of sums it up. As far as I know, and that's all I know about them, that animal never left Jak's side, not once! And somehow he seemed to like that annoying yapping of his. And yes, the animal _did_ talk. Don't ask me how it was ever possible for him to do so, but he did, and Jak always referred to him as a human being. But that's just about all I know about them. Jak saved my and my men's lives once. I bet you know more about his doings in saving the world from that dark ship than I do."

The monk nodded slowly at his last comment.

"I probably do."

The three men left the room of the wounded hero and while the early morn slowly turned into noon and later on an early afternoon, they discussed what was going to happen in the near future. The most important question being what role the broken hero had to play in all of it.

---


	6. Survivor

_OK, so it took a little while for me to update, but now it's up; a fresh chapter! I hope you're still with me. _

* * *

He knew something wasn't right.

He tried to move a little and was rewarded with a heavy headache.

_I'm so_ not _doing that again!_ he thought and tried to not make the aching grow any worse.

He didn't want to open his eyes. They felt too dry and too itching to begin with, but mostly he figured that light would increase the dull pain in his frontal lobe.

And he didn't want that.

Then he realised he was in motion. But he wasn't the one moving, rather he was being moved. He was lying on something that moved.

Now he simply had to open his eyes to see what was making him feel motion around himself.

He shut his eyes almost immediately as the bright white shine of the desert sun had hit him full on and caused another series of headaches and nausea. Strange as it was, he felt like he had been drinking a whole lot of alcohol based fluid of the stronger and more dangerous kind the day before. But his memory was intact, so that theory was out of the question.

But he still found it very odd to be on the move. He knew he had fallen asleep sitting in the sand right by the cave opening. And this was no sand underneath him. It was boards of wood, which made him come to the conclusion that he was lying on some sort of open wagon.

This meant he was being moved somewhere by someone. But why, and who was it?

Slowly he turned his head and opened his eyes again. Someone was riding a leaper lizard alongside the wagon.

The rider turned his head towards the wagon and now Daxter recognised the white face.

"Oh, blimey, a monk!" he grunted in a low voice and closed his eyes once more.

Someone, probably the monk, told him to hang on just a little bit longer, until they reached the temple. Daxter only listened with half an ear, already reluctantly falling back into an unconscious sleep.

-----

The next time he opened his eyes, Daxter found himself staring up into a creamy white ceiling. And he was lying in a bed.

"What…?" he mumbled with a voice heavy from sleep, before his memory got back to him. He remembered the monk and the wagon, and that someone had told him something about getting to a temple. So, he figured this was somewhere around that temple.

With a low grunt he pushed himself up to sit, using the wall at the head of the bed as support for his back.

He didn't feel quite right.

Sure, he was as hungry as a starved crocka-dog on a diet, but that wasn't it.

He studied his hands as he tried to clear his thoughts.

The look of his pale skin alone made him feel like in a dream. It had been so long now since he last saw his hands like this, without the orange fur and the chubby form of paws.

As he let his eyes drift further, he noticed some scars on his arms that he didn't quite remember having. He hadn't had them before he got the fuzz.

Slowly he realised these were proofs of his devotion to Jak – marks of battle that he hadn't quite noticed once they'd healed underneath the fur.

A flash of memories were released at the sight of the scars and he caught himself wondering about where the marks he'd gotten on his tail would be showing as it was now.

And then he came to think about Jak.

The hollow aching in his chest almost made him cry out for help, but he bit his lip and forced himself to think of something better.

Just because he hadn't found Jak, it didn't mean he was hurt or anything like that.

Hard as he tried, Daxter still had a feeling of deep loss hovering in the back of his mind, telling him he'd never see his best friend again.

But Daxter didn't want to give up just yet.

Remembering the monk that had taken him to this place, he found a small ray of sunshine to hang on to, a small hope that maybe the monk had found Jak as well and that he was sitting outside this room waiting for him to wake up.

Right about when he decided to get out of the bed and take a look outside, the door opened and a monk entered through it, carrying a tray with what Daxter happily recognised as food.

"I'm glad you're awake at last," the monk said and smiled widely as Daxter gobbled down the soup and bread he'd been brought as if it was his most favourite meal of all. Starving does that to some people.

"Thanks," Daxter said a short moment later as he swallowed down the last piece of bread with a gulp of water. "I so needed that stuff!" he continued and smiled gratefully at the monk. "Oh, and thank the guy who got me here too!"

"I will do that. The group of them are resting at the moment, but I will give them your message as soon as they feel rested enough to talk," the monk answered softly, a laugh hidden in the voice. "But now you must tell me your story, so that we might help you in the best way possible. My fellow monks who brought you here told me they found you by a cave out in the desert, not far from here. Where are you from? "

"Oh, you don't wanna' go there, pal, I tell ya'," Daxter said and gave the monk a dubious look before he continued. "But the last place I had a fixed address at, was Haven City. Part of that time I spent in Spargus, though. Anyways, that's not the point!" he interrupted himself and changed the way he was sitting on the bed before he carried on.

"I got here with my friend and we were hunting down some really creepy metalheads, when we got to this cave. Ya' know, there was a really huge one in there! Humongous! I'm talking some sort of mutated mother bee metalhead! We had it crawling on its eight knees soon enough, but then it had to play dirty and shoved me over a cliff and separated us! I tried to find him, Jak I mean - not the beastie-, but it was sort of hopeless in that darkness, so I decided to wait for him instead as soon as I got out in the open air. Now I'm thinking he got into some trouble with that monster of a metalhead, so it would be great if we could, like get our asses over there again and check the cave with some proper lighting…"

Daxter's voice traded off when he got to the last words.

A big lump of something feeling awfully much like tears was building up in his throat. But he tried to force it down.

" I… I've got to find him, ya' know? I mean, I'm sure he's alright and stuff, but he might be trapped and… Well, at least I have to look for him…"

He felt a cool hand on his shoulder and looked up from his own hands which he had been fixing his eyes upon.

The monk's face was troubled.

"Hold on, my friend. Are you saying you found a metalhead nest in that cave?"

"Ah, yeah. But no worries, we took care of the nest. Jak probably got the big one too, so there's no trouble there," Daxter answered, trying to feel more optimistic than he did.

"Now, I have to ask you…" the monk started out, but then he stopped himself in the middle of the sentence and took another look at Daxter. "Wait, your friend, what did you say his name was?"

"Jak," Daxter replied, feeling a little odd as the monk looked him over.

"Can't be…" the monk mumbled to himself, before he addressed Daxter once more. "If that is true, then _who_ are you?"

This vague proof of recognition revived every part of Daxter's lost hopes.

He practically threw himself at the monk as he grabbed for his robe.

"Wait a minute! You _know_ him? Where is he? He's here? _Tell me_!"

"Calm down, he is not here anymore!"

Daxter let go of the monk and sank back onto the bed, not knowing whether he should feel good or not.

"But, he's been here, right?"

The monk gave him a slow nod of the head, still a bit confused over Daxter's reaction.

"Yes. We took care of him for a few days. He was, badly wounded. A couple of wastelanders came to get him only yesterday, they left last night and managed to get Jak with them. They were in a hurry to get back to Spargus. Had we only realised... You were brought here yesterday evening, but we didn't know who you were…"

"_What?_ Wait, I was here, and Jak was here, but he never knew I'd gotten here, am I right?"

"Yes. I am most sorry to tell you this…"

"But, but he must have _told_ you about me!"

Now the monk seemed to remember something, a small spark of recognition showing in his eyes, all though the doubt was still there.

"He did, eventually, tell me something… He never mentioned a name, but I guess… but if you're that person… understand that we didn't expect you to be…alive," there was a pause in front of that last word that made Daxter feel his stomach taking a fast dive.

"Also," the monk continued as he decided to see whether his guess had been correct or not, "I did get the impression you were supposed to be… an animal?" It was more of a question than a statement, and Daxter found himself nod at this.

"Uhm, yeah, I sort of used to be… But, I'm trying to get this, so help me if I got it wrong, ok?"

The monk, a little bit confused by his statement, nodded for him to continue.

"When you said, _you_ didn't expect me to be alive, uhm, d'ya mean Jak as well as you? I mean, does Jak think I'm…dead?"

The monk didn't say anything, but the sadness in his face showed Daxter all he needed to know.

"Yipes…" he huffed and sat back with his back against the wall again as he tried to grasp the meaning of these news. "He has to be some mess, then…"

"He was mostly silent, but when he spoke, I think it was mostly about you. That's how I managed to realise who you were, once you mentioned his name," the monk explained slowly.

"Yeah, I figured as much. He's never been talkative, ya' know, so that's nothing new," Daxter said in a try to cheer himself up. But knowing Jak had thought him lost sent a chill through him. He knew only too well how much Jak depended on him.

Sure, he himself depended on Jak to be the strong and tough one, but Jak had depended on Daxter in order to stay sane ever since those two years in the Haven prison.

There hadn't been a night since their reunion, that he hadn't needed to feel Daxter close to him in order to sleep, and whenever Jak had been having his fits after a dark eco exposure or after the transformations, he'd needed Daxter to tell him it was alright.

Things had gotten better after they got to Spargus, that was one thing Daxter was sure about, and the light eco had done wonders to Jak's sleeping habits.

But he'd still needed Daxter close. He'd told him this in so many ways, maybe not with words, but still. Daxter knew it was the truth.

So just how would Jak react to him being gone?

Daxter didn't want to go there.

The important thing now was that he got to Jak as soon as possible; he had to show him he was still there for him.

"I hope I can help you. You're still not well enough to take on a new travel, but as soon as you are rested, I could try to find you someone to help you get back to Spargus."

Daxter looked up at the monk's empathic face and tried his best to smile gratefully for this gesture.

"I could go after him right now, if ya' don't mind," he said and tried to get up from his bed, but was gently pushed back down by the monk.

"No. I understand how you feel, but you wouldn't survive the desert heat in the state you're in. You need more food and water, and some rest. You will have to wait."

Daxter put up a pout and glared at the monk.

"I don't wanna' wait! I've gotta' get to him _yesterday_!"

The monk simply shook his head.

"No rush now. I would not want you to die out there, now that you have been brought back, as it seems, from the very door of death."

"Right, I guess that's the smart way…" Daxter admitted and curled up with his knees touching his chin, hugging his legs and trying not to cry out his exasperation in the matter.

The monk silently lifted the tray with the empty soup bowl and water flask and started to turn towards the door.

"What's your name, by the way?"

The monk turned at the mumbled question and looked at Daxter.

"You can call me Keem," he answered in a soft voice.

"Right…" Daxter said and rolled his eyes at this name, thinking it sounded way too similar to that of the head monk of the temple over at the wasteland outside of Spargus.

"Why did you ask?"

"Well, I just thought it good to know someone here. I'm Daxter, by the way."

Keem showed him a small smile at his comment and nodded.

"Well then, Daxter, I will come back to you later with some more food. I suggest you rest until then."

And by this, Keem turned around and walked out of the room, closing the door as he left.

Daxter didn't think lying down to rest was the right thing to do now though.

He slowly moved to the edge of the bed, and when he felt certain that Keem wasn't going to come back anytime soon, he swung his legs over the edge and got up. Only to sway dangerously once he stood up.

"Whoop!" he breathed and managed to slowly get back down on the bed, forcing himself not to throw up as the nausea hit him.

"Damned monk to be right about _everything_!" he muttered as he laid himself down on the bed again, feeling like he was having a major hang-over.

As he pulled the cover up to his nose and closed his eyes against the spinning world, he thought about what Keem had said about Jak being badly wounded.

What did he mean by that?

Jak always managed to get hurt in one way or another, but he always healed up pretty quickly thanks to the dark and light eco inside of him.

But then again, what if he didn't _want_ to heal?

"Oh, man," Daxter whined into his pillow. "Just hang in there, pal, I'll get to ya' as fast as I can. Just don't die on me…please…"

----


	7. Return of a hero

The sun was high in the pale blue skies above the city, the ocean creating a dark spot in his vision as he looked out over the rooftops.

All was calm, for the moment.

The eastern wall was getting repaired from the damage it had taken in the last attack and every citizen who was old enough to do so had volunteered to join the forces fighting off the marauders.

This was a city prepared for battle at anytime in the day now, ready to fight for their lives down to the very last man or woman.

And still he hadn't heard anything about anyone ever complaining about not feeling safe here.

This fact he wasn't so surprised by, but he didn't think it would be too long until the first complaints would start coming.

Sig sighed heavily and turned away from the window.

He was alone in the throne room and at the moment it was exactly what he wanted; to be alone with his troubled thoughts.

He had been put to rule by a mere mistake, but he also knew he wouldn't have been chosen, had Damus not thought him worthy of it and capable of handling the responsibility.

But still, there were times he wished he wasn't the king.

The metalheads had attacked the city walls regularly since two weeks back now, and he still hadn't found out where they came from or what made them turn against the city in such a manner.

There was supposedly no leader left to summon them, no one to plan the strategies needed for those attacks, and still they came almost every day. The walls were about to give in anytime now, no matter how fast the repairs were done, they weren't going to last long if this new war wasn't put to an end soon.

And as if the big wasteland monsters weren't enough of a nuisance, the marauders were more eager than ever to get inside the walls and to get in the way of the wastelanders.

Sig had the two fronts of this new war under observation as it was, but he feared he was still missing something, namely the one thing causing this mess.

And he had realised that he needed help if he was going to get to this "thing".

That's why he had sent two of his men to find Jak and bring him back, by all means necessary.

No matter his superiority to the young man as it came down toage and experience in the field ; the kid still had something Sig didn't have.

At times in the past he could have sworn the hero somehow _knew_ what the beasts were thinking.

Almost instinctively he had found nests none else had found, he had known before any of the others when there was a metalhead nearby. And then there was this thing with the dark makers…

But Jak had been gone nearly two years now.

No one had heard from him since he got back from the racing tracks of Kras City. He had taken off as soon as he'd managed to get a car. Where to, he hadn't told anyone. Keira had been upset over it for a long time, but neither she, nor any of the others had managed to find him _or_ Daxter.

Sending out his men to find Jak now was a long shot, but he felt like he at least had to _try_ to find him, even though he knew that the chance of the golden boy and his partner being found again was pretty slim.

Sig shook his head and headed for the elevator.

He needed to think about something else before he turned all sentimental and crazy.

He needed a drink. Badly.

"Sir? Garrack here, sir."

The raspy voice from the com almost made Sig jump.

Almost.

To tell the truth, he barely even twitched his eyebrows, but he was a little bit surprised to hear from his men this soon.

Either it was really good news, or really bad ones.

The king of Spargus breathed in slowly and reached for the com fastened at his belt. Letting his breath out calmly, he steadied his shaking hands before he switched on the com.

He badly needed some good news in this matter.

"Talk, Garrack, and _please_ tell me it's good," he said, voice cold and dry.

The following pause was hard to endure.

The crispy white noise of the radio waves was creating its own interpretation of silence as the dark skinned man silently prayed for his friend to be alive.

"Garrack, are you still there?" Sig asked after a minute had passed without the soldier answering.

"Sorry, sir, I had to take care of something." Garrack's voice came back oddly strained, his breathing a bit heavier than before.

Noticing this change, Sig perked his ears and steadied himself for what might come.

"Very well then. Go on. You contacted me, chilli, so you better have something to say."

"We've got him sir."

Sig was close to smiling with relief at those words, but none the less he forced himself to stay alert.

There was something in the way Garrack had spoken that made the king hesitate about whether or not this was good news.

"I can tell on your voice that something's not right, so spit it out before you make me mad," he commanded in a calm voice.

"There've been some trouble in, well…"

"Speak up soldier or you'll regret it!" Sig was getting a bit agitated now. Something wasn't right and that meant bad news.

He didn't want bad news right now.

"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir! What I meant to say was that we've got him, sir, but he's in a bad condition, sir. We're having some trouble keeping him alive."

Sig suddenly got worried.

"What do you mean? Are you close by?"

In all this time that he'd known Jak, the young man had never been down for the counting, not even once.

There had been some close shots, yes, but he had still walked out alive and the ottsel on his shoulder had also lived to brag about it every time.

For Jak to be in bad shape, he had to be just about dead.

"We're getting there, don't ya' worry, sir. We'll be at the gates before sunset. I just thought you'd like to know the situation. We might need a medic to care for him."

Sig stared at the communication device in his hand.

The humming silence of it was deafening for a few seconds. It filled the air and crushed at his lungs, creating a need to scream out in a way that he knew he shouldn't.

Keeping calm was hard.

"Sir?"

Garrack's voice came out in between the humming, a little uncertain.

"Very well, I'll bring a medic with me then. Well done, soldier. Any other problems I should know about?"

"I don't think so, sir. Ya' better make that judgement yourself. Over and out."

And the connection was cut.

-----

A commotion at the car park by the main gate told Sig he had been a little too slow to prevent the news from spreading.

The medic, a monk from Seem's staff, was walking hastily a few steps behind him, rather because he couldn't keep up with the king's pace, than out of respect.

A small group of curious spargans had assembled around a tough jumper car in the middle of the yard, but they all backed off as Sig made his way towards the object of interest.

The tall and muscular dark shape of Garrack was visible in the midst of the crowd, looking dead serious and making the group of people maintain their distance by simply staring at them.

The scarred warrior had earned himself quite some bit of respect during his years in this town's service, and that obviously came in handy at moments like this.

Sig moved up closer and managed to place himself in front of the man in a matter of seconds.

"I've brought the medic. Now where is he?" Sig said in a low voice, careful to make sure Garrack was the only one hearing his words.

"He's in the car, sir. Tuz's been keeping an eye on him, sir. He seems stable, but…"

Garrack's eyes turned downwards as if he was afraid of offending his king by telling him what he was about to say, but Sig didn't care to bother about it. He simply stepped in between Garrack and the car and got the medic with him.

Inside the car, underneath a scruffy looking blanket, lay the young man he'd wanted to see.

But this was not the face he remembered.

Jak was pale, the overall composition of his characteristics even gave him a haggard and worn look.

The hair was a bit longer than last time Sig had seen him, but the biggest change was that of the impression he got when looking at him.

This was a man who had given up.

Sig felt like the world had suddenly turned upside down and he had to breathe in slowly through his nose in order to keep a straight face as he looked upon his friend.

"By the precursors Garrack, what have you done to him?" he asked silently and watched as the medic started to examine the young man lying lifeless in the car.

"We had to get him here, sir, so we did. Or should we have left him at the temple?" Garrack answered politely without turning to look at him.

"I'm starting to think you should have," Sig hummed to himself and sighed, his one eye fixed on Jak.

And that's when he noticed just what was bothering him.

"Garrack, tell me this honestly, or you'll regret ever seeing me," he said and turned towards the soldier.

A little uneasy by hearing the sound of his king's voice, Garrack turned to face him.

"Yes, sir?"

"I distinctly remember my boys to be two. Now, I'm not all too good with numbers, but I can only see _one_ of my cherries here. So where's the other?"

Garrack started to look down, avoiding the stern look given to him, but he managed to look back up before he answered.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sir, but I guess it slipped my mind. We never found the ra- I mean, the other one. Just Jak. My guess is that's why he's in such a bad shape, sir."

This didn't really surprise Sig, he had started to figure the whole thing out before he even asked about it, but it still made him feel a little off.

Could that really be it? Was Daxter the reason?

"I see," Sig said, voice filled with emotion and his eyes turned once more towards Jak.

"I'm expecting to get the full report for all that you've come to know about this. Meet me in the throne room in one hour." He paused and looked up to face Tuz as well. "Both of you."

"Yes, sir!" both men replied in one voice.

"Excuse me, sir," the medic was done examining his patient and was now standing at Sig's side.

"Yes?"

"We should move him indoors as soon as possible, the desert heat haven't been too well for him. I shall call for someone to bring a stretcher…"

"That won't be necessary. Just tell me where to put him," Sig said in a short tone, bent down and managed to lift the unconscious man into his arms.

The medic looked like he was going to argue with him, but seemed to realise it wasn't going to be of any use, and simply shook his shoulders before he turned around and started walking towards the palace.

"Follow me then, sir."

-----

Jak could hear someone talking nearby.

The voice was warm, deep and very familiar.

It made him feel…safe.

He only knew of one person who could make him feel like that, and the realisation of what that meant made him strain to regain the control of his body.

It felt like all his limbs had been filled with lead.

He felt heavy and stiff all over and his head was giving him a hard time as soon as he tried to open his eyes, but he still forced himself to do it.

And the first thing he saw was a green eye in a dark face.

"Hello, cherry. So you've decided to wake up now? You almost had me worried there for a while."

Jak felt the corner of his mouth tilt upward for a second.

"Sig," he whispered out, and before he knew it the older man sat down on the edge of his bed, one large hand resting reassuringly on his shoulder.

"We'll get ya' through this in no time, chilli pepper. You'll see."

Jak bit his lip to avoid the tears from filling up his vision again.

He had thought he'd cried his share already, but he guessed it was like opening a window to the wind. It would take a whole lot of practising in order to shut it up again.

"I couldn't save him."

The words slipped out before he'd meant them to, but Sig only nodded silently at it.

"You're a strong man, Jak, but you can't save everyone, none can. But you are the best soldier I've ever met. I'll be damned if I let you throw that away as if it meant nothing to you. Don't disappoint me, or _him_ for that matter. What do ya' say, cherry? Wanna' try living a little longer?"

-----


	8. Armed and dangerous

_Sorry for the delay. Had loads of stuff to do. But here's a new chapter for ya'! ^^_

* * *

Daxter didn't think they'd ever get away from the temple.

The monks had been very nice and patient, but they were too slow to his taste. The first two days he'd used the extra time for practicing walking around in clothes again.

All though, his biggest problem had turned out to be learning how to walk, without having a tail to balance his every move.

But as soon as he had figured out how to do it and had gotten more familiar with his present length, Daxter was bored and eager to get going.

Sure, walking around doing nothing as others served him food and anything else he craved was a marvel, but he couldn't relax while knowing Jak was still unaware of his miraculous survival.

Something inside of him ached as he thought about what Jak must be feeling.

Besides, being alone really wasn't Daxter's thing. Being away from Jak was actually making him feel uneasy, like a mouse knowing that the cat it's been teasing is on the loose and hungry.

Having faced danger and death close up for years while sitting on the shoulder of the bravest man he'd ever known, Daxter sort of felt like death was waiting around the corner for him to take a wrong step, now that his living, breathing and killing shield of a friend wasn't there to protect him.

At least that's how Daxter himself explained this weird uneasiness every time he thought of Jak.

It had taken him almost two weeks before the monks finally gave in to his demands that they'd get him to Spargus. Keem had insisted for Daxter to rest and recover some strength before he went after Jak, but Daxter being the overactive person he'd become while living in ottsel-speed, simply talked and ranted on about him being "finer than fine" and ready to go, until Keem gave in.

Now the monks who had agreed on taking him to the desert city of Spargus took their time getting ready.

"Come on all ready!" Daxter whined loudly and made a big deal of illustrating his annoyance. "How much could you possibly need to pack for this trip? I mean, geez, this'll take forever!"

Holta, one of the three monks who were going to accompany him on the journey, stopped in his movements and gave him a stern stare.

"We will need water and food, and we will need for it to be packed properly, or else the leapers won't manage to go at their top speed. Be patient, we will get there soon enough."

"But I've been ready to go for _two friggin' weeks_!" Daxter complained and sat down on the stone bench behind him. The fountain on the open court yard was making a sound that in Daxter's ears was very much reminding him of how eager he was to get away from this place, because it made him think of crying.

So, when Holta finally told him to get up on his leaper, Daxter jumped to the task. He didn't even bother thinking about the fact that he'd never ridden on a leaper before in his present size. He simply figured he'd get the hang of it once he was up in the saddle.

Luckily for Daxter, the leaper he was given didn't feel like fooling around or leaving its friends behind, so most of the time it behaved quite well.

He only got thrown off twice.

----

The gun clicked and he reloaded before his enemy even realised it had an opening.

The beast was blown into droplets of purple-black fluid only thirty seconds later, showering the surrounding rocks and sand with its poisonous remains.

But Jak didn't even flinch. He simply moved on to the next target and repeated the procedure.

His companions did what they could to fight back the monsters themselves, and to not get in Jak's way if possible.

A group of metalheads had been spotted close by to the north wall of the city and Jak had been sent out with a group of other wastelanders to deal with it. During these last two weeks this had become some sort of a routine.

The first time he'd been sent out with the others, they'd all been a little uncertain about him. But when they'd learned that his assistance in the matter had let them all get back home alive, they'd started to appreciate him as a lucky charm.

And just about two missions later on they'd become a bit nervous around him.

Jak took his job seriously.

Kill the metalheads.

Keep the city safe at all costs.

That was what he meant to do.

The thing was that he didn't care to keep himself safe.

And he didn't seem to bother about what he was aiming his gun at; as long as it was moving towards him, he shot it.

The fact that he only seemed to listen to Sig didn't exactly ease things up either.

He was never put in command of the missions, but he never bothered to listen to anyone giving him orders either.

He simply went out to do what he'd been told to do by Sig.

The gun clicked again.

Jak searched for another pack of ammunition, but realised as he couldn't find one, that he had used it all up.

The metalhead in front of him brawled as it saw its chance of winning and leaped forward to attack.

Jak grunted with disappointment over not getting to fire his gun at the vile thing coming up towards him, but didn't waste any time regretting not bringing an extra pack with him.

Instead he firmed his grip on his gun and waited for the beast to come closer.

A mere moment before it was about to strike at him with its sharp needlepoint claws, Jak smiled grimly at it and shot himself upwards and forward with a strong leap.

While in mid air, he turned around his own shoulder, creating a spinning motion. Using the gun as a beating stick he managed to completely knock out the beast with one blow.

He landed only some seconds later than his target, but he didn't stop moving. Remembering every tactic he'd used in his life before he had ever heard of a thing as guns, Jak stepped up to the fallen but still breathing beast and took a jump up in the air, somersaulted and landed fists down on the hard skull of the creature.

It gave in with a loud cracking noise and as the skull gem popped loose, Jak quickly stepped away from the metal head, picking up the glowing gem as he went, and managed to get back to a safe distance from the dark eco that now filled the spot where the metalhead had been lying a few seconds earlier.

A low whistle from the side made Jak look up.

"Not bad, goldilocks," the woman beside him commented and threw a pack of ammunition at him.

He caught it with one hand and nodded his approval, but he didn't say anything. He simply turned around, reloaded and started to search for another target.

Since he came back to Spargus, Jak hadn't spoken a word to anyone but Sig, and even when with him he was getting more and more quiet.

Jak simply didn't find any use in speaking, especially since he seemed to get along fine without doing it.

His fellow soldiers on these missions had come to accept his silence as a proof of his inability to speak all together. Why else would a man like that not scream out a warning to his comrades instead of simply shooting at the thing trying to ambush them?

Then again, most of his companions on these missions had come to the conclusion that he was more or less a maniac whom they should feel lucky to have on their side, as long as they didn't have to stand too close to him.

In other words, Jak was mostly left alone and this suited him just as good as it did those men and women who sought to avoid him.

He didn't care about being alone. All he cared about was to do his job. That's what kept him going, what kept him alive and made him get out of bed every morning.

Because whenever he had a mission to do, he could forget about the pain and focus entirely on what he had at hand.

Jak couldn't see any reason for him self to stay alive, if it wasn't for the simple fact that he could do something the others couldn't. He faced these monsters head on without fear, because he _knew_ he could beat them. After all, wasn't that the reason Sig had sent for him in the first place?

"Jak, behind ya'!" someone called out.

Jak spun on his heel and found himself staring at the chest of a metalhead throwing itself at him.

He ducked in the last moment, rolled back up onto his feet and fired off one shot with his gun, aiming with perfect precision at the beast's head as it turned towards him anew. The skull gem popped loose and before Jak managed to get away, the dark eco floated out on the ground before him.

He didn't even have time to move, before the purple-black fluid started to move towards him.

Within a second it made contact with his feet and seeped in through the material of his boots and got under his skin, creating a shockwave of electrified sensations as it travelled through his body with the bloodstreams.

"Hey, you all right? You should get out of there before that stuff touches you…" The same man who'd called out the warning was coming up from behind, but as he saw what was happening, he stopped in his steps.

"What the…"

Jak had bent down and put his hands into the pool of eco to let it fill him up faster, to make it go away before anyone noticed.

The flashes of purple sparkles that followed his arms was nothing compared to the sight of this dark pool of highly poisonous fluid moving on its own accord towards this one man, who simply seemed to absorb it through his skin.

When there was nothing left, Jak stood back up and turned to face the man.

"What did you just do? What kind of a _thing_ are you? That was _dark eco_!"

Jak didn't say anything. He simply shook his shoulders and looked at the surroundings.

The fight was over for now. The metalheads had retreated and the group of wastelanders was reassembling over by the cars.

Jak lifted one eyebrow and looked at the man who was still staring at him as if he was the leader of the metalheads.

_Are you coming?_

His silent question wasn't mistaken by the man. He took a firm hold of his weapon and nodded towards Jak.

"After you, freak. I ain't lettin' ya' out of my sight until I get an explanation for all this."

Jak shrugged indifferently and started on his way back to the others. He didn't care what the man thought of him.

He had done his job. And once more, he'd survived.

Only this time he'd slipped up a bit.

He'd refilled his dark eco reserves. Not all of it, but enough to awaken the slumbering beast he'd been trying to keep hidden for the rest of his life. And now, it was waiting for him to slip up once more.

As they got closer to the cars, the other wastelanders noticed their approach and saluted Jak for his effort. After all, he was as usual the one who'd managed to get rid of most of the pack.

But as soon as they saw the gun pointed at Jak's back they fell silent until both men stood among them.

"Explain this, Haggar, or you'll be sorry," said Karidi, the commander of this mission and the woman who'd given Jak the extra pack of ammunition.

"If you'd seen what I saw, you wouldn't be so comfy around this bloke either!" Haggar said without lowering his gun.

Jak rolled with his eyes, but he still kept quiet.

If the man felt better about himself when pointing his gun at Jak's back, then Jak wasn't going to argue about it. At least not until Haggar decided he was also going to fire that gun.

Karidi wasn't pleased with this answer.

"And just what might it be, Haggar, that gives you the right to point a loaded gun at one of your own?" she asked him, her voice loaded with anger.

But Haggar didn't back off.

"I'm tellin' ya', this freak absorbed that black ooze like a plant drinks water!"

This fact had a various impact on the rest of the group.

Some of the men laughed nervously, thinking this was some sort of a bad joke, others simply took a step away from Jak.

Karidi, however, didn't seem to react at all.

"And this gives you the right to call him your enemy? What are you, a child or a soldier?" she barked at him.

Jak slightly shifted his expression in surprise at this.

"Do you have any idea who this man is?" Karidi went on and stepped up close to Haggar, who involuntarily lowered his weapon.

Haggar was sweating nervously and moved his eyes between Karidi and Jak, uncertain of just what his commander was implying about the young man.

"Well, I…" he started but was cut off by Karidi.

"No you don't, that's obvious," she said, leaning in closer on Haggar's face before she continued in a whisper; "All I need to know is that thanks to him this world doesn't belong to the dark makers. He's a hero, and if you dare point your gun at his back once more, I swear I'll shoot you on the spot."

This message Haggar understood perfectly.

He immediately dropped his gun to the ground and decided to stare at his feet.

"Good boy," Karidi hummed and winked at Jak as she passed him on her way back to her car.

"Come along in my car, goldilocks, I need to have a word with you," she said as she jumped into her seat.

With those words spoken, the tension of the group eased up and all of them rushed to their vehicles, glad to get back home.

Jak decided he might as well do as he was told, since he didn't have a car of his own and needed the ride.

As he sat down in the passenger seat of Karidi's jumper, he caught a glimpse of pure confusion in Haggar's eyes as he started his own car and backed away from the spot.

Karidi didn't say anything at first. She simply started the engine and drove off.

Jak actually thought he was going to get away with her not saying anything at all for the entire ride back to the city and started to make himself as comfortable as he could.

"Don't think I don't know your story, Jak. Everyone who lived in Spargus back then knows it."

Jak rolled his eyes and tried his best to shut out the rest of her speech. He'd heard this from all the other commanders already. Somehow he was quite certain that it all had something to do with Sig.

"The thing I don't get, though, is why you're not willing to even stand up for yourself! Why don't you talk back? I know you can, so don't try telling me you can't, 'cause I ain't buying it!"

Jak sighed and gave her a bored look, underlining his point that he'd already heard this before and that hearing it once more wouldn't make him change his mind about things.

Karidi grunted at this, realising this was going nowhere.

"All right then, don't speak. You do what you feel like doing, but don't expect me to save you again."

"Who ever said I wanted to be saved?"

Karidi almost hit the brake at the sound of the raspy voice coming from the man sitting beside her.

"What's that supposed to mean, huh?" she asked as soon as she'd recovered from the surprise, but Jak had already turned his attention to the passing landscape and didn't feel like repeating himself.

As soon as the car had passed through the gates to Spargus, Jak jumped out of it and headed for his quarters.

He didn't want to talk to anyone and the best way to avoid this was to get away from people who wanted to talk to him. Not that there were many who would want it, but one could never be too careful.

Sig waited at his door.

"Hello, cherry. Wanna' let me in?"

Jak simply walked past him and left the door open. Sig took it as an invitation and closed the door behind him as he entered the small flat.

"You know, you can still come and live up at my place if you'd like. Especially since it's your place to begin with…" Sig started off as he let his eyes sweep across the single room of the place.

Jak ignored him. Instead of answering, he put away his gun and started to pull off his armour.

Sig sighed and shook his head.

"Look here, chilli. Things won't get any better by you acting this way and you know it. So stop being such a baby and start acting like you're alive for a change!"

At this remark, Jak raised his eyes to look at the man before him and stared at him in silence.

"You know, cherry, I can't read minds. If you have something to tell me, then you'd better just have to use your voice."

Jak rolled his eyes at this and dropped the shoulder guard he'd released onto the floor, creating a dull clatter as it landed.

"I ain't leaving until you promise me that you'll stop moping around," Sig said with a stern face and crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking even more like a lecturing older brother than ever.

"What's the use?" Jak mumbled and sat down on the floor to take off his boots.

Sig tried not to show his relief over the young man giving in to talking to him and sat down beside him.

"I need you as a soldier, Jak. But if you can't cooperate, then you're of no use to me, nor Spargus. The only thing you'll win by acting like this, is enemies."

"So? See if I care."

Jak ducked just in time to avoid being hit by the slap Sig intended to give his head for this comment.

"Are you dumb, chilli? You'll get yourself killed out there if you don't give up that attitude!"

Jak didn't answer this.

Sig reached out and grabbed his shoulder in order to turn him around and face him.

"Why won't you leave me ALONE?" Jak growled out in a sudden explosion of rage, turning quickly towards his surprised friend and pushed at him hard enough to send him into the wall next to him with a loud thud as the metalhead armour made contact with the rough stone.

Being the experienced warrior he was, Sig quickly bounced back on his feet and readied himself for the next attack – but there wasn't one.

Instead of jumping at him, Jak had curled up on the floor, back turned on Sig.

With his guard still up, not sure of what to expect next, Sig moved closer to Jak once more.

The sudden outburst just now had been anything but expected and he was certain that he'd seen Jak's eyes turn completely black the very instant he'd faced him.

As he got close, Sig realised Jak was shivering.

"I won't tolerate you doing that sort of thing all too often, chilli, you hear me? What was all that about? You do know I'm just trying to help you out, right?"

"I… I'm sorry, Sig. I… I can't…do this…anymore. I'm losing control of it."

Jak turned slowly, but kept his eyes fixed on the floor, ashamed to look his friend in the eyes.

"He's still there inside me, you know. That…monster."

Sig nodded n silence. He knew what Jak meant. He'd seen the transformation before, but it had been a long time now since the last time.

"I couldn't help it. The eco… it… I… and he saw me and…"

"Slow down, cherry," Sig objected calmly and patted his shoulder comfortingly. "I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't think I want to know it either. No one got hurt, that's the important thing, right?"

"But…"

"No buts! You're not a monster. Now all you have to show me is that you're still a man. Moping and killing yourself won't bring _him_ back you know."

And with this, Sig left the apartment.

Jak still sat on the floor, staring at the door as he listened to Sig's steps fading away as the distance grew between them.

"Staying alive won't do it either," he mumbled to himself as the silence started to creep up on him in the empty room.


	9. A dangerous place

_EDIT: Sorry, realised I'd published two chapters as one... Bare with me and just skip the next chapter if you realise you've already read it._

* * *

Daxter felt like he was put in an oven.

Apart from the heat, he also felt quite tender in some parts of his body. Spending two days riding at full speed wasn't comfortable when one comes to think of it. Adding his anxiety for not getting to Jak fast enough, Daxter was in constant whining mode.

"Are we there _yet_?" he asked for the fifth time that day.

Holta, whom for the day was positioned to ride next to him, rolled his eyes at this an ignored the unnerving tone of the redhead's voice.

"As I told you this morning, we'll most likely reach the outskirts of the area sometime after sunset today. Be patient. Asking unnecessary questions will only make you tired."

"But if we didn't rest for three friggin' hours at mid day we'd get there even faster!"Daxter complained with a sour face.

"Well," Holta said in a slightly lecturing voice, " if we don't rest during that time when the sun is at its hottest, the leapers will get dehydrated and we will most likely catch a sun fever. By resting those minimum hours, we keep both our animals and our selves alive and at good health. That way we'll reach Spargus much faster than if we decide to expose ourselves to the mid day heat."

"Well, I still don't like it," Daxter mumbled and motioned his leaper into a faster run as the two monks in front of them did so.

Even though he'd rather want to keep the speed up, he understood all too well why they had to slow down from time to time. But it was hard to keep his need for haste down each time they had to slow up in order to give their leapers a chance to recover their strength for the next rush.

Ever since the night before Daxter had had this agitating feeling that something was wrong and it made his skin crawl every time he thought of it. During their journey south towards the desert city they hadn't encountered even one stray leaper lizard pack, nor any other living thing for that matter.

Having spent nearly two years on the drift in these parts of the world together with Jak, he had come to learn that the desert wasn't as dried out and dead as one might think. There had been many encounters with various animals, even during the hottest parts of the day. And now there wasn't a single animal in sight.

Daxter felt like he should enlighten his company about this discovery, but decided he should probably wait until he was absolutely certain that this absence of life around them had anything to do with his feeling of uneasiness. The monks sure didn't seem to notice anything and they were supposed to be the sensitive ones, right?

He decided that most of his bad feelings came out of his need to get to Jak and kept his silence.

Almost.

"Are we _there yet_?"

----

_Darkness enveloped him. _

_Anger, pain, shouting._

_He was running through a corridor without end, one moment trying to get away from something behind him and in the other moment hunting something down._

_His fingertips were itching fiercely, his head felt like it was going to explode and he could do nothing to stop it. _

_The urge to rip something apart came over him in waves of disgust for what he was feeling._

_What was he hunting?_

_A monster._

_No, an animal._

_Suddenly he found the end of the corridor and there was his prey. _

_He jumped it without warning, let his teeth sink into soft flesh, claws ripping through the skin like it was nothing but air. _

_The taste of blood filled his mouth. _

_But he didn't want it! _

_He wanted it to stop, but he couldn't control anything he did._

_And then he saw the bloody mess of orange fur that he was holding in his suddenly clawless hands._

Jak woke up with a start, screaming out as he sat up from his twisted blanket on the floor.

"Dax!"

The cry was almost instinctively, but as soon as he realised where he was, it made him go from feeling fear to being filled with a heavy sadness.

He wiped the sweat from his face and tried to focus on the present, to get the memory of the nightmare to fade away.

He could feel the dark eco pulsating inside him.

This sort of nightmare had first come to him in the prison of Haven City.

But he hadn't dreamt it for nearly three years now.

Being close to drained of the dark eco he'd been able to sleep regularly for quite some time now.

But now that he'd taken in some of the dark substance into his system again, the nightmares were back. And this time, Daxter weren't around to help calming him down or waking him up before it got too bad.

He suddenly caught himself looking for the ottsel and shook his head violently in order to clear his thoughts.

This wasn't helping him at all.

He realised he had to either move on or just give up living all together, 'cause living like this was just as good as impossible.

But how could he just leave all those years behind him?

Sure, he'd forced himself to forget a lot of things.

But he never really forgot about it.

He just stopped thinking about it and sooner or later he wouldn't think about it at all, until something happened that reminded him about it.

Things long forgotten like the feel of soft green grass beneath his bare feet, or more recent memories like that of the pain caused by the hundredth injection of dark eco within two hours.

But could he really do that with Daxter? Just push him away from his memory and place him alongside those other "forgotten" joys and horrors?

In order to keep breathing, to keep living without pain, he had to.

Jak cursed out loud and hit the floor hard with both his fists, trying to dull the pain of losing by making it hurt elsewhere.

A deep breath and a whispered apology to spirits listening later, Jak got up from the floor and put on his boots and clothing for the day. His mind set on dealing with whatever the future was going to bring him, leaving behind the dull aching he'd been living with up until now.

----

This was going nowhere, or at least Daxter thought so.

He gazed into the horizon in front of them and sighed with exasperation since nothing had changed since the last time he took a closer look at the view of that direction.

"Still nothing but something looking like possible mountains," he said and turned towards Holta. "Are you sure we're on the right track?"

The monk looked at him with a surprisingly calm face after all the hours of complaint from the red-headed young man riding beside him.

"Yes. Trust me, we are taking the fastest way there, but leapers are a bit slower than a car. What might have taken you two or three days to travel by car takes at least three and a half, up to four days if you ride the leaper lizards at full speed. Please be patient and you'll see that we'll be there soon."

"Oh yeah? Well you said that yesterday too," Daxter mumbled silently to himself. He just couldn't shake the feeling that they were moving too slow, not to mention his growing uneasiness referring to the absence of desert life.

About one hour later, Daxter took another look at the horizon and almost lost control of his leaper as he spotted the lines of Spargus' walls. It was far off still, but at least he could now see it, and this made him feel a whole lot better.

But even with his goal within sight, Daxter couldn't shake the uneasiness.

He thought about asking Holta about this, but when he turned to face him, Daxter caught sight of something troublesome in the corner of his eye.

"What was that?"

Holta, unaware of what Daxter thought he'd seen, turned towards him with an asking face.

"That thing! I _swear_ I saw something move…" Daxter was cut short in his explanation, as a huge shape suddenly threw itself over Holta and his leaper lizard.

"Holy precursors!" Daxter cursed through his teeth and held in his leaper lizard with some trouble. It had panicked and started screaming the instant it realised there was a predator close by.

With no space to think about his options, Daxter managed to turn his leaper around.

"Leave him alone you freak of nature!" Daxter yelled at the metalhead as he threw his empty water flask at it to get its attention.

The metal object hit the beast's hard back with a dull sound, and the thing turned its attention away from its prey.

The only problem was that the metalhead suddenly decided this new prey was more fun.

"Shit," Daxter yelped as he realised this and let his lizard run away as fast as possible.

As the metalhead went for him, Daxter could see the other three monks get in place to help Holta while the beast was busy chasing Daxter.

The only problem was that Daxter really didn't stand a chance against this monster and he knew it.

The leaper was tired from running all day and he himself… well he wasn't Jak.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU BRING ANY GUNS?" he screamed out in his panic as he tried to stay put in his saddle while the leaper turned faster in its flight in order to shake the thing chasing them.

Just as Daxter was sure the metalhead would reach him, he got thrown out of the saddle by a close passing missile.

It hit the metalhead straight on in the head, creating a shower of small beads of dark eco as it exploded.

Daxter rolled away from the rain of the beast's remains as quickly as he could, thinking of nothing but getting out of the way of those drops of dark eco.

"Phew, whatever asshole it was who shot that thing deserves a medal for _not_ hitting me in the process! That was _too_ close!" Daxter whined out loudly as he got back up on his feet.

The growing rumble of an engine made him turn around and wave at the vehicle coming closer.

"Hey, good shot!" he yelled and was about to add his gratefulness for his life being saved in the last second, but kept it in as he saw the driver.

"Aww, not now!"

The marauder hit the brakes violently and jumped out of his car wearing a wide grin on his fleshy lips.

"Seems like I've gotten me some lost buggers, ey'?" the man said and walked right up to Daxter.

"Care to explain your business on my territory?"

Daxter swallowed down all the insults that out of old habit were racing through his mind and tried to stay calm.

"Listen, mister blow-it-all-to-pieces, I'm really grateful for your help back there, but now I better get me and my friends moving," he jabbered on. He started to turn away to check on Holta and the other monks, but was stopped by a firm grip on his wrist.

"Not so fast, ya' little brat! I asked ya' a question and you'll answer it!"

Daxter tried to calculate his chances and the risks, but he'd never been a fan of math, so he gave it up in favour for his witty mind.

"Would it really matter whether or not I answer you? You'll just find a reason to kill me no matter what I do, right?"

The marauder was a bit confused by this response and loosened his grip a little, which was well enough for Daxter to squirm his way out of the grip entirely and jog away to his travelling companions.

"Hey, hold it!" the marauder yelled after him, but Daxter didn't care about listening to him.

"Is Holta ok?" he asked as soon as he reached the group of monks that were now sitting in the sand around their fallen brother.

Holta answered this himself by turning his eyes to look up in Daxter's worried face.

"I'm all right, just a broken arm and some bruises," he said in a low voice and smiled. "It was a brave thing you did and I'll be forever thankful for it."

Daxter breathed out with his relief at hearing this.

He was about to start a tirade about how brave he was to have done what he did, having just about forgotten all about the marauder, when he was once more grabbed by the said man, whom now had caught up with him.

"You're in marauder land now, monkey bones, so ya' better find me a reason not to kill ya' right now!" the man growled as he harshly turned Daxter around.

One of the monks answered before Daxter had a chance to say anything.

"Please, leave him be. We are but humble monks of the precursors' temple and we come in peace. We never meant to do any wrong turns and if we have passed into your area without permission, we apologise deeply."

The marauder stared unintelligibly at the speaker and snorted at what had been said.

Daxter felt sure his life was getting shorter by the minute and prayed that the monk who'd spoken wouldn't mention his going to Spargus.

"You'll be sorry, that's for sure, white face. Here we don't care if you're monks or peasants; you're just plain trespassers to me. What're ya' doin' here? Where're ya' goin'?"

Daxter slowly shook his head in order to warn the monk of telling their true destination, but he didn't seem to get the message.

"We are merely helping our friend here back to Spargus", he said.

Daxter sighed loudly at this and the marauder started laughing as he looked closer at Daxter.

"Ya' mean to tell me this skinny brat is a _spargan_? I'll be damned! You just saved yourselves from instant death. We've been looking for a spargan to keep hostage."

Now, finally, the monk seemed to realise his mistake.

Daxter could see it in his face as the realisation dawned upon him.

"But, you can't do that!" the young monk tried to object, but was instantly silenced by a hard backhanding from the marauder.

"Sure I can! I told ya' this is _my_ grounds, got it?"

The huge man suddenly shoved Daxter away from himself and grabbed the monk he'd just hit instead.

As he landed hard on all fours in the sand, Daxter realised he'd only get one chance to turn this little predicament into something that would be easier to handle and decided he'd better take it.

He had suddenly remembered a similar situation and what Jak had done back then.

Sure, the situation that came in mind included a lurker and the one attacking had been Jak, but Daxter figured the actions taken then _should_ work just as fine, if he replaced the lurker with the marauder and Jak with himself.

Hopefully he wouldn't hurt himself in the process.

"Hey, ya' big lump, haven't your mother ever told ya' not to pick on those smaller than you?" Daxter yelled out at the marauder, who slowly turned to look at him.

"'Cause we come in groups!"

Before the big man had a chance to react, Daxter threw himself down and by using a sweeping movement with his legs, he managed to make the marauder fall over as his feet crashed into the big man's knees.

As he fell, the marauder hit his head on a rock sticking up in the sand and was knocked out.

Daxter quickly got back up on his feet, dared to look in awe at what he had accomplished and helped the somewhat dazed monk to stand up as well, pulling him with him by the hand as he ran up to the closest leaper lizard.

"Come on! He won't stay on his back all day, so let's get out of here!" Daxter yelled out at the others.

He jumped up into the saddle and tried his best to keep the leaper still as he waited for the monks to get up on their animals as well.

Realising they'd have to team up on the leapers, seeing as Holta's leaper had been killed and Daxter's own leaper had run away, Daxter reached out for the first person passing him by.

This just happened to be Holta.

"Get up here!" he told the monk and helped him get in place behind him.

As soon as Holta had steadied himself as good as possible with his damaged arm, Daxter took off.

It really seemed like they'd make it and Daxter even started to smile to himself in a smug manner, when a cloud of dust suddenly appeared in the distance.

It didn't take too long for him to realise what this meant and not far after this conclusion was made, he could see the first of three marauder cars closing in on them from different directions.

The cars stopped in front of them, forcing them to stop their lizards.

Daxter cursed under his breath.

"Now what have we here, ey?" the first of the newcomers said with a nasal and raspy voice. He was a thin man with dark blue hair and pale skin, looking not all too dangerous in Daxter's eyes, until he saw the huge dagger that hung by the man's belt.

"Seems to me that they're trying to run away," another one of them filled in and laughed. This man looked more like the marauders Daxter had gotten used to; big boned, huge muscles and a look of insanity in his small red eyes. The entire composition was perfected with a bald head and a collection of scar tissue on his upper arms, looking more or less deliberately carved into the skin as a sort of rough tattoo.

The third marauder, looking pretty much the same as the one before him, didn't say anything, but he smiled at his friend's comment.

From behind him, Daxter could hear how the man he'd knocked out only a moment earlier got back up on his feet, cursing out loud as his head apparently had started to tell him, in a most painful way, about what had happened.

"So, where do ya' think you're heading?" the blue haired one said and stared at Daxter, a grim smile playing in his face.

Daxter rolled his eyes at him. He didn't feel like playing along, but he knew all too well that he didn't have so much of a choice.

"My guess is we're not heading for Spargus anymore, am I right?" he answered with a voice dripping of sarcasm and the marauder laughed at him.

"Well what do ya' know, the kiddie's a smart one!"

He got some approving nods from his companions and walked up closer to Daxter and Holta.

"Now either ya' get down from the leapers yourselves, or we'll pull ya' down."

"Oh, yeah?" Daxter dared adding, but noticing the movement of the marauder's hand towards the dagger at his side, he decided this wasn't the time for defying an order.

With no other way left to go, Daxter helped Holta down before he got out of the saddle himself. The other monks followed his example, making Daxter almost feel like he was some sort of a leader all of a sudden.

If it hadn't been for the serious situation they were in, Daxter thought he would have enjoyed this moment a lot more.

Their hands were bound behind their backs, with an exception for Holta, who simply got one hand tied to the back of his belt.

The marauders then shoved them into the cars for the transport to whatever place they were supposed to be taken to.

Daxter and Holta ended up in the blue haired man's car and the other three monks were divided among the remaining two cars.

"So, who's the one that made Gauter take a nap in the sand back there?" the blue haired one asked as he turned towards Daxter and Holta in the backseat.

"Well, you're lookin' at him," Daxter said with a proud voice, hoping this statement would give him some sort of acknowledgement from the other man. What he didn't expect was for the man to laugh.

"Hah! Good one! So, you're the spargan then?"

"What if I am?" Daxter answered hesitatingly.

"Well, this will be fun indeed. We haven't had a spargan to fight in the ring for _years_."

"Say _what_?" Daxter hick-upped and looked desperately at Holta for some sort of explanation, but noticed that the monk had fainted. Obviously the wounds from the metalhead attack earlier had been worse than the monk had wanted to admit.

"Don't you worry, squirt, you'll fit right in with the rest of the dead-beats. And who knows, you might even survive to see someone try to actually save you."

----


	10. Facing the fear

_Sorry, but I realised I'd published two chapters as one, so for all of you who realise they've allready read this chapter; you're not getting a bad memory. Skip this and go right to the nex one if you don't feel like a re-run. This is what was the later part of chapter 9: A dangerous place. _

* * *

Haven City looked even more horrifying than he remembered it.

Jak took a deep breath and tried not to think about what waited for him on the other side of those walls surrounding the city.

It had been a little more than two years now since he'd decided to leave for good. He'd been fed up with the entire city and all that came with living within its concrete walls.

All the demands and cravings.

The dark plots of the underground organisations that secretly controlled the place in spite of Torn's eager attempts to scatter them.

Even after the whole calamity caused by the war had calmed down, Jak had seen proof that the reign of baron Praxis had caused even the smallest child to mistrust anyone with power, no matter in what way that power was used.

In the dark alleys of the slums, as well as in the centre of the city, crime prospered in all the ways possible.

It was when Ashelin had demanded he'd take his place on the throne as the rightful heir, that Jak had made his final choice to leave.

He didn't want to have anything to do with this nest of mistrust and anger. He had enough of that by just trying to stay in control of himself.

And then it was Keira.

That woman had made things pretty hard to endure once they'd gotten back from Kras City.

Jak shook his head at the memories.

He'd choked up on the demands.

Ashelin wanted him to rule the city, Torn wanted him in the front lines of the guards and Keira wanted him to settle down.

Why couldn't things just have stayed as they were?

And now he was once more facing those very walls he'd sworn never to return to.

He was sent on orders from Sig to get in contact with Torn, or most preferably with Onin or Samos, in order to try and find a reason for the metalhead activity around Spargus.

Jak knew Sig had picked him to go simply as a way of forcing him to make contact with those he'd left behind.

He also knew that he didn't want to do it, but as he couldn't make himself turn down the mission or disobey the orders given, he simply had no other choice than to follow through with it.

"Welcome back, we're glad to see you're still alive. Have a nice day."

The automatic message that played itself as the gate opened made Jak wrinkle his nose in disgust. Why they still hadn't changed that message was a bit hard to understand. Maybe the technology controlling the gates was still malfunctioning since the blasts the central had taken during the war.

But it still made his skin crawl.

Jak stepped out onto the street and stood still for a moment as he tried to locate himself.

Sure, he knew the city just about as well as he knew his way around in his own pocket, but the streets had changed a bit since the last time he'd been there.

For example, last time he'd checked this entrance, there hadn't been a building standing on the spot in front of him. Nor had there been this much traffic in this area before.

Some of the walking citizens took a really long look at him as they passed him by, making sure they didn't get all too close to him. At least not much had changed in that area.

Probably his wastelander outfit, completed with a gun strapped across his back and the desert dust on his face and arms, didn't exactly help him to fit in, but he still thought it shouldn't create as much of a ruckus as it did.

Luckily he'd left the tough puppy outside, or else he'd probably get arrested right away for creating a scene.

After a little wandering, keeping to the shadows in a try to avoid attention, Jak finally managed to get to a place he did recognize.

The central market place.

After trying to get some information from the spooked shopkeepers, he found his way to the spot where Onin had used to live in her tent. All though as he got there, Jak realised that the old fortune teller had moved her belongings elsewhere.

"Great," Jak muttered under his breath and forced himself not to kick at a stone by his feet.

The very air simmered with the noise of the city and its inhabitants and Jak was starting to feel like a caged animal.

This was going nowhere!

He didn't want to meet with Keira, or else he'd gotten himself over to the arena for some directions.

If Onin wasn't possible to find, then he'd have to go for Samos or Torn. And last time he'd checked, the old man had lived at the palace, the very place where he'd just be happening to find both Torn and Ashelin as well.

This day sure wasn't turning out to be a good one.

As he stood there in the middle of the square, trying to decide which way to go, Jak's line of thoughts was interrupted by the scream of a little girl at the stand next by him.

Curious of what was happening he turned to look.

A woman who was probably the girl's mother tried to hush her in the same time as she was arguing with the shop keeper.

"I swear, she didn't mean anything by it, she simply liked the colour and reached for it!"

"You break it, you buy it!" the fat shopkeeper rumbled back at the distraught woman and the little girl cried even louder.

"But it was an accident! I don't have the money to pay for it!"

"Then I'll just have to call for the guards, won't I?" the man said in an angry voice as he towered over the mother while she desperately tried to calm down her daughter. The poor girl couldn't be more than four years old and apparently she'd happened to break a pretty large, and by the sound of the shop keeper, expensive vase.

Jak was going to leave it be, figuring it would all soon be solved, when he saw how the fat man deliberately pushed the crying child into the table of his stand, making yet another vase crash to the ground in the process.

"Now look at what you've done!" the man yelled at the woman.

This whole scene had attracted a crowd by now, but surprisingly enough, no one interfered or objected as the shopkeeper harassed the woman, demanding her to pay even more money than before.

Just before the man raised his hand to hit the woman, who was now down on her knees trying to pick up the pieces of the vases, Jak stepped in front of him with a set face.

Squaring his jaw, he slowly shook his head at the man, who, quite surprised at Jak's appearance, took a step back and blinked in disbelief.

"What? Who- who are you? How dare you interfere with my business?" he stammered out and worked up his anger once more. "I'll call the guards!"

Jak helped the woman back up on her feet and didn't bother to give the fat man a look.

Still not saying a word, he lifted the now silent but still crying girl over to her mother's arms, before he finally turned towards the enraged man.

"Guards! Help! Guards! He's got a gun!" the shopkeeper suddenly yelled out, having spotted the gun strapped onto Jak's back as he'd returned the girl to her mother.

Jak didn't think to bother about this and simply rolled his eyes at the yelling man.

He reached down into his small bag of money that he'd brought with him in case he'd need to buy something to eat, and brought out a small amount of coins together with a small metalhead skull gem.

He pressed the money into the man's hand and turned to leave as he saw him gawking over the gem, when two men in blue armour suddenly showed up from behind the corner.

Noticing Jak's outfit, they stopped him and took a long look at the scattergun on his back.

"It's against the law to carry heavy weaponry within the city walls, wastelander. Please remove your gun and come with us," one of the guards said in a calm voice.

Figuring he'd get to Torn way faster this way, Jak decided to agree and started unstrapping the gun.

"But he didn't do anything wrong!"

Surprised to hear the objection, Jak looked up.

The mother of the crying girl was now standing next to one of the guards, still holding her daughter in her arms.

"It's still against the law. But don't worry, ma'm, he's not from around here, so he'll be off with a warning. We just have to go through with some procedures first."

"But…" the woman tried to object, but Jak simply shook his head at her.

"Don't bother, I'll be just fine. Don't make anything you'll regret later for my sake," he said in a low voice as he turned over his gun to the waiting guards.

"Just take me to the commander in chief and I'll discuss this with him," he said as he turned to the guard who had spoken first.

"All right, fair enough," the guard answered him and turned around to leave.

"Follow me then."

And so he did, only feeling slightly annoyed as the other guard fell in behind him, acting as if he was a prisoner. As if he was dangerous.

Walking through the city in this manner, he could just as well had been hand-cuffed and marked with a sign saying he was a criminal.

Every other person they passed stared. Some of them made a face telling him he was disgusting for breaking the law. Others seemed to sympathise with him, giving him looks that told him to hang in there.

But none of them did anything more than just look.

Not a word was spoken to him or his guides through the labyrinth that was Haven City.

Jak couldn't help but regretting ever stepping back inside the walls.

The guards took him to a high building close to the grounds of the old palace.

As they stepped inside, they were immediately met with the sound of the guards that were off duty for the moment, playing cards or simply arguing about something.

As they saw Jak, most of them silenced.

Taking someone here, to the headquarters of the guard, either had to mean the person was a very dangerous criminal, or something was about to happen.

"Where is commander Torn? We have a request to see him," one of Jak's guards asked one of the others.

The man in question took a long hard look at Jak, who simply stared back at him in silence until the other man averted his eyes.

"All right, he's in the back, having a meeting of sorts with that old man. I'd wait it out if I were you," the man said and pointed with his thumb at a door further down a hall.

The guards who'd taken Jak to the place were about to agree with their colleague, but Jak didn't think he'd get a better chance to talk to Samos than this, so without further ado, he simply walked up to the door before anyone had the time to stop him, and opened it.

"Hey, what are you doing! You can't just…" the guard who'd been closest to him yelled out, but he was cut short in his objection as the people inside the back room saw who it was that had entered.

"_Jak!_?"

Three voices yelled out in chorus.

And Jak felt like leaving at the spot, seeing the faces of Ashelin, Torn and Samos turn towards him in wonder.

The guards behind him seemed all to draw their breath at the sound of his name.

Jak sighed.

Everybody knew his name and what he'd done.

But no one knew who he was. And right now, he didn't need an extra audience, so he stepped inside the room and slammed the door shut in the faces of the guards who had risen to get closer.

"Jak, my boy, where on the face of this planet have you been?" Samos asked him in a voice that was simultaneously worried and accusing.

"We were starting to think you'd never come back," Ashelin said, a new light awakening in her eyes as Jak walked up closer to them.

"Well, say _something_!" Samos demanded as Jak silently sat down in one of the chairs around the conference table.

Jak didn't feel like talking.

He didn't even want to be here in the first place.

He looked at Torn, who was the only one who hadn't said anything to him yet.

The hard blue-grey eyes observed him in silence for a few seconds. Then he made a face telling he'd discovered something odd.

"Where's Daxter?" he asked.

He'd been the last one Jak had expected to notice or even mention the absence of the ottsel on his shoulder.

Now that Torn had mentioned it though, both the others suddenly seemed to realise that there actually was something missing in the picture.

"I thought it was a little too quiet," Ashelin noted and looked around the room as if to see if the little animal in question was actually just hiding out somewhere.

Samos, however, was the one to notice Jak's reaction towards Torn's question.

"Something's happened?" he asked carefully in a gentle voice.

Jak didn't want to answer.

Sooner or later they'd all figure it out anyway.

"I'm not here to stay."

Ashelin gave Jak a disappointed and scolding look as he said this.

"I'm just here on orders from Sig. He needs to get in contact with you regarding an unusual behaviour among the wasteland metalheads. They've been attacking Spargus' walls for some time now and we're starting to get out of ideas as how to track down the reason for this."

Torn slowly shook his head in thought and Jak waited for someone to comment on this before he said anything more.

"So, how do we get in contact with him, then? Can't we use the communicators' frequencies as before?"

It was Ashelin who'd decided to speak.

"We can't make our coms catch your frequencies. Something's bugging them," Jak explained and put down two coms on the table.

"That's why I've brought you two of our own. They'll work. Just make sure to contact Sig as soon as you might have an answer to this," he said and got ready to leave the room.

He'd gotten as far as rising from the chair and turning around, when Samos stopped him, laying the top of his wooden cane onto Jak's shoulder.

"There's something you're not telling us Jak," Samos mused. "What has happened? Where's Daxter and why did you just pack up and leave like that? I need you to answer me on these questions."

Jak didn't turn around.

He could feel the anger caused by the eco move inside his chest and pushed back the desire to simply hit someone.

"If something's wrong, we might be able to help you," Samos continued, filling the awkward silence between them.

Jak breathed out slowly.

He couldn't afford to lose it right now, the control over his darker side. But the questions Samos asked him made him feel things he didn't want to know about.

Things he wanted to forget.

"You can't help me."

Jak had forced the words out from behind his teeth, his voice sounding much darker than he'd intended it to.

"Don't speak nonsense, boy! Just tell me what it is!"

Samos was worried now; he could hear it in his voice.

It was time to leave.

"Just leave me alone, ok?"

"Jak, where's Daxter?"

Ashelin's voice was sharp and commanding. She didn't just expect him to obey and answer, she _demanded_ it.

"He's…" Jak struggled to find the words. He didn't want to say it, because if he did, it was as if he made it true in a way that it wasn't until he admitted it. But he couldn't just leave without answering now.

"Dead."

One word.

It was one small word, and still it hurt more to say than any other words he had ever heard himself say.

He didn't turn around to see the stunned look on the faces of the others, neither did he stay put to hear their reactions.

He simply walked out of the room, just as easily and calmly as he'd walked in.

The guards outside in the entrance room tried to look like they hadn't been trying to listen to the conversation, but Jak didn't even bother looking at them. He just grabbed his gun as it was held out to him and then he was off.

He ran through the streets at random, taking a turn when ever he thought it would be good to do so and not caring about the looks that he got as he rushed past groups of pedestrians.

Strangely enough, he was at the gate before he even knew how he'd gotten there.

"It's dangerous out there. Please come back."

The mechanical voice carved its message into his mind.

Yes. He knew it was dangerous out there.

That's why he wanted to get outside.

He needed for something to occupy his mind for a while.

As he stepped outside, Jak realised something was wrong.

The car wasn't where he'd put it.

He looked about for a while before he spotted it lying with the roof down some distance away.

Wind wouldn't do that.

A loud roar made him turn to look to his left and from behind a hill he could see a monstrous wasteland metalhead rise up to stand on all four.

It had tracked him down and waited for his return.

This meant big trouble.

If the metalheads were attacking in planned movements and tracking down their victims exclusively, someone had to be in the control of their actions.

Again.

Jak could feel the adrenaline rush to its purpose and the dark eco within his veins started to move faster, urging him on to release the built up anger.

He smiled and he almost didn't feel it as the horns started to grow out of his skull.

"Bring it on," he growled, the monster laughing inside his head as the metalhead rushed forward to crush him.


	11. The bigger they are

_This is a fight-chapter, ok? Daxter will get to prove he's a lot tougher than he looks. ^^_

* * *

Daxter knew this wasn't going to be easy even before he had fully grasped the concept of what was waiting for him at the end of the tunnel.

The marauders had brought them all back to some sort of a base camp. There were tents, cars and marauders everywhere.

And a cave.

Or rather, a tunnel through the mountain.

Holta and the other monks were brought directly to the middle of the camp and were displayed for the gathered lot as the "catch of the day" as they were all put inside a cage made of barred steel gates.

Daxter however, was brought straight into this tunnel.

The crowd of marauders grew steadily as soon as they discovered what was going on, leaving the monks to themselves at the middle of the camp.

Daxter didn't like this.

Normally this amount of attention would suit him quite well, but this wasn't that pleasurable kind of attention which he liked.

"Could ya' just tell me what's going to happen?" he whined to the marauder leading him on.

The man laughed and shook his head at the comment.

"You're sure this whelp's a spargan, Dart?" the man asked the blue haired marauder who'd brought them there.

"Why of course not, but the monks said so," Dart answered him with a crooked smile and winked at Daxter, who instantly felt like throwing up on the spot.

"'Sides," he continued, smile widening, "this 'whelp' managed to somehow totally knock out Gauter for about five or ten minutes."

This made the other marauder stop in his step to whistle a low tune of amazement.

"And if that ain't proof this kid's a spargan, then at least he's got one hell of a talent," Dart said and motioned for them to go on.

Dart's speech had drawn even more attention to Daxter and now the crowd gathering around them in the tunnel was doing its best to catch a glimpse of this strange kid.

Suddenly they got out into an open area, and the end of the tunnel.

It proved to be some sort of arena inside the mountain, reminding Daxter pretty much of the arena at Spargus, except this one didn't have lava floating around it, nor an open sky above it.

As soon as they got out of the tunnel and in to this arena of sorts, the marauders scattered and got up on the audience seating, their voices rising gradually from a murmur to an excited roar.

"Come on, could ya' please tell me what's going on?" Daxter begged Dart with his whiniest voice.

The marauder turned to face him and Daxter could se the laughter playing in his eyes and smile.

"Well, since you ask so nicely," he said sarcastically and imitated a court bow. "We do enjoy having spargans as visitors, so in order to celebrate this we're going to let ya' entertain us. It's simple, really. Fight and prove your worth and you'll live to the next round up. Probably."

"Fight? _Me_? No way, I'm in no condition to fight!" Daxter objected wildly as the marauder who'd lead him there untied his hands from behind his back.

"Well, sorry to say then that you have no choice," Dart snickered and grabbed his shirt to pull him close.

"It's a fight or die thing. Just do your best."

The words were whispered slowly with a hard intonation on each word and before Daxter had any possibility to object any further, he was pushed hard into the sand of the arena floor.

He could hear a heavy door slam shut behind him and realised he had no escape route left.

"Aww, shoot!" he muttered and sent some not so nice thoughts towards the gods of fate and luck.

As he got back up on his feet he noticed that the crowd had grown quiet.

Surprised, he looked around the place to see what might be the cause for this and caught sight of a huge figure in the far end of the place.

"Buggers, it figures that the one time I actually manage to do something good, it turns out it's actually a bad thing," he mumbled to himself and tried to find something to use for his defence.

"Let the fight begin!" someone called out in a loud voice from somewhere above at the stand.

Now the crowd immediately started roaring once more and at the corner of his eyes, Daxter could see the large figure starting to move closer.

"Jak where are ya' when I need ya'?" he squeaked out through his teeth and searched even more desperately for some sort of weapon he could use.

He was ready to give up the search when he found a piece of a broken staff lying in the shadows of the wall surrounding the ground of the arena.

He picked it up and took to his feet just in time to avoid the first attack from the marauder who was coming up from behind him.

The large man stumbled and fell face first into the sand, at the very spot where Daxter had been only a second earlier.

The crowd roared anew in excitement as Daxter ran for his life and tried to come up with some sort of a plan to get through this fight alive.

As he looked back over his shoulder, Daxter noticed that having been a small animal for a great part of his life had somehow affected his body. In this case it seemed to have made him a lot faster than he remembered being.

He'd made it across the ground in no time at all and he wasn't really tired either.

Stunned at the discovery, he stopped running for a moment and looked down on his feet as if to ask them how this had happened.

The angry outburst of the marauder at the other end woke him up from his wonderings though.

But he didn't start running.

Instead he started troubling his brain with what he could possibly do with the sharp wooden stick in his hand.

The marauder came running in high speed and once more Daxter managed to dodge him in the very last moment, causing him to take another dive into the sand.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The crowd on the stand was getting restless.

_Sorry to disappoint ya', but I ain't up to fighting this fella' just yet_, Daxter thought and ran once more across the ground to win some more time as the angry marauder got back up on his feet.

Daxter thought that he might be able to keep this game of catch for as long as it would take to make the other fighter tired, but as the marauder came at him for the third time, Daxter was suddenly hit in the back by something that had been thrown at him from the stand.

This was enough for him to miss his chance to get away, and this time the marauder crashed right into him.

He felt like he was going to get crushed underneath the mountain of a man who'd landed on top of him and started to kick and hit him wherever he could reach in order to make him get away.

But as the man got off, he grabbed Daxer's right arm and pulled him up as well, a gesture that ended in Daxter sailing through the air and landing some strides away.

The sand scratched his skin and he felt like he'd hit solid ground instead of soft and giving sand.

His arm ached violently and the scratches stung something fierce, but he didn't have much time to think about this, as the marauder once more grabbed him.

He was lifted high into the air and thrown away to land in the very midst of the arena.

This time he had bit through his lip at the land and as he tasted the blood on his tongue he felt nauseous.

He didn't think he'd be able to survive very many of those throws.

As his opponent once more got close, Daxter managed to roll away and found himself lying on something hard and pointy.

Just as the man was about to flatten him against the ground, Daxter got the staff out from underneath his back and by pure reflex he shoved the weapon upwards, toward his enemy, and closed his eyes.

"Huff!"

Daxter felt a heavy pressure on the staff and opened his eyes.

The crowd had suddenly fallen silent.

Daxter couldn't stop staring at the man who only a moment ago had tried to kill him.

Now the man was bending over the staff held out by Daxter's shaking hands, impaled by it's pointed broken off end, having pushed it himself all the way through as he'd thrown himself at Daxter.

The blood was pouring slowly out of the wound, dripping down the staff and colouring the sand beneath them with red spots.

"What the…" Daxter mumbled in doubt of what he had done.

Suddenly the crowd above seemed to wake up from its state of shock and the roar of appreciation over the sudden ending of the fight they'd been watching filled the air and echoed off the walls, creating a horrible mixture of screams for blood.

"We have a winner!"

Daxter turned to look at who'd spoken, but couldn't find a face to go with the voice, as the marauders started to move around to get out of the cave arena.

Someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him roughly up on his feet and his hands were forced back behind his back before he even realised what was happening.

"Move," Dart's voice told him from behind.

For the first time ever, Daxter didn't feel like talking back.

He just couldn't stop thinking about the man he'd killed, the blood and the weight pressing on his arms.

He walked back through the noisy tunnel barely noticing the ruckus around him.

As he was shoved into the cage where the monks were sitting, he didn't really care about the pain of hitting the ground without having a chance to catch him self in the fall.

_So this is how it feels when you've killed someone_, he thought as the monks tried to help him up.

He felt awful.

He felt dirty, like he'd never be able to clean his hands again.

He'd seen people die before.

Heck, he'd been on Jak's shoulder in the midst of a killing raid!

But he'd never actually done the killing with his own hands before.

No matter the fact that this guy had been trying to kill him, Daxter still felt like he'd done something terribly wrong.

And that's when the thought hit him that he might not be the only one who felt like this and the realisation of the full meaning of this brought tears to his eyes.

_Precursors, Jak, why didn't you say something?_

----

Claws tore the dark flesh open within seconds.

He scaled the gigantic body as if it was an ordinary hill, reaching the neck within a minute.

With the claws digging deep into the muscles, he swung himself downwards, ripping the beast open as he went.

The windpipe was torn right before he let go and the huge animal screamed out its pain, but it wasn't dead yet.

Dark purple and black blood dripped down on the ground and he dove for it, absorbing the eco as he ran on without stopping.

It was weak now.

He had to finish it off before the eco let it heal.

A surge of energy started to tickle in his arms as a purple light started to gather in his hands.

Still running to get to the monster's head, he pressed his hands together, creating a static noise as the power of the dark eco was building up inside him.

The release of the energy that had assembled in his hands gave off a loud bang and the metalhead was stopped in its step by the impact.

As it fell down on its side, he growled with pleasure at the feeling of laying down the prey.

And then the eco left his system, all used up on the final attack.

As his vision cleared, Jak noticed that the monstous metalhead was still breathing shallowly.

He tried not to think about what had just happened.

This was the first time his dark self had come out into the light of day since more than two years back.

He'd almost thought of it to be gone, had fooled himself into feeling safe.

And now this.

It was pure luck that he hadn't turned while still inside the city. Who knows what he might have done if that had happened?

He stumbled back to his overturned car and reached for the com in his belt as he walked.

Just as he was about to make the call for someone to help him, the com beeped, telling him he had an incoming call.

"Yes?" he answered slowly, voice still shaking from the stress of his transformation.

"Jak? This is commander Karidi speaking. Are you still at Haven City?"

"Yes."

"Could you meet up with us in a few minutes? We've gotten word from Sig to take care of some business with the marauders. Apparently they claim to have caught a spragan trespassing their grounds."

Jak wrinkled his forehead in deep thought as he heard this.

The marauders loved to brag whenever they did catch a spargan off guard, but to send a group of others to listen to them wasn't something usual.

"Why…" he started asking, but was cut off as Karidi answered the unfinished question.

"Some monks were to have been caught as well. Seem has demanded we at least take a look to make sure whether this is true or not."

Well, that explained it partly.

Jak looked at his car.

"Karidi?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm having trouble with the car."

"We'll pick you up then."

"Good. I'm at the north gate."

Jak looked once more at the dying metalhead and decided he should give the woman and her companions a warning.

He pressed the speaker button again.

"It's the one with the dying wasteland metalhead in front of it."

----


	12. Captured

_Ok, a short but intense one, this chapter. More action from my very own independent woman though. Gotta' love a strong girl, right? Enjoy!_

* * *

The look on Karidi's face as she and her men had pulled up by the metalhead had been just about priceless.

Especially after she realised that Jak hadn't fired one single shot at the monster.

The overturned car was a pointer for this one.

"I'm not even going to ask how you did it, just make sure you don't do it too often, ya' hear?" she told Jak as he climbed into the car after they'd managed to turn it right side up.

Jak didn't say anything about this.

There was no need for making her worry about him turning dark whenever she wasn't looking.

If she didn't ask, he wouldn't tell.

They'd gotten the coordinates for the meeting spot over the com and were now heading over there; four cars racing at high speed across the dunes.

Jak couldn't help but feeling a bit exhausted.

He had a hard time of not making it show just how much he'd been affected by the encounter with the metalhead.

The hands on the wheel were shaking slightly and his head felt heavy.

Jak was tired and drained of not only eco, but energy as well. Driving the car was taking a risk, considering his constant need to close his eyes. He was glad to have the goggles down over his eyes, or else someone might have noticed his weariness as they drove by him.

They drove fast enough to stir up a thick cloud of sand dust floating up into the air behind the cars and for each dune they climbed the cars were sent off flying away from it as they left it, engines roaring and wheels spinning.

About one hour later Karidi gave signal to stop and Jak stepped down hard on the brake, causing the car to slide in a spin before it finally stopped just about one meter away from where Karidi's car was standing.

The woman stared at him as if he was crazy and Jak couldn't help but to smile behind his scarf.

"If you're trying to kill yourself, please do so without endangering the rest of us!" the man in Karidi's passenger seat yelled out at him.

Jak shrugged at the comment and pulled down the scarf before he placed the goggles back upon his head.

"Sorry," he said with an indifferent voice and noticed how Karidi tried hard to hide an amused smile on behalf of her passenger.

As the remaining two cars pulled in around them, Karidi got out of her own car and looked around, searching for a sign that would tell them whether or not they were being tricked into a trap.

Luckily the picked spot for the meeting offered them a number of escape routes, leaving Karidi the opportunity to relax a bit.

There was an oasis some way off to the west and a collection of rocks shooting up in the air a few hundred meters to the east, but apart from this they had free sight for miles around.

"They're late," one of the men pointed out as he walked up to Karidi.

"Just wait and see, marauders have their own rules and probably their own way of counting time as well," Karidi said calmly, without even looking at him.

Jak still sat in his car, trying to not fall asleep in his seat. He rubbed his stinging eyes and tried to focus his thoughts around the mission.

Marauders hated spargans. Why would they even consider keeping one alive if they got their hands on him? Jak simply couldn't figure this riddle out. He was way too tired.

Suddenly they could all hear a number of cars coming closer, and soon enough they saw the dust cloud telling them where the marauders were.

There were three cars. As they stopped some way off, Jak could see that there were two marauders in each car and in the backseats he could make out the shapes of other passengers with their heads covered by wheat bags.

Three prisoners then. That meant they'd left two prisoners back at where ever they'd come from.

"All right, who's in charge?"

A blue haired man with pale skin had jumped out of one of the cars and was now walking slowly towards the group of assembled spargans.

Karidi took a step forward and squared her jaw.

"I am. Now what is it that you want with bringing us out here?" she said, voice cold and sharp.

The marauder stopped a few steps away from the tall dark skinned and well trained woman, took a good look at her, up and down, before he answered with an approving smile.

"Well, lady, we believe we've stumbled across some friends of yours and just wanna' make sure this is the deal before we decide what to do with them, ya' follow me?"

Annoyed, Karidi snorted at the man's explanation and crossed her arms across her chest in a pose that told everyone around her to stay away.

"Am I asking for too much if I demand that you give them over to us right away?" she said.

The marauders laughed at this, even the blue haired one smirked a bit, his eyes never leaving Karidi's stern face.

"Well ain't ya' a doll," he said in a relaxed manner. "Of course we'll give them back to ya'; as soon as they've been fairly judged for the crime of trespassing, that is."

"We won't negotiate unless we know who they are and that they're unharmed," Karidi answered, seemingly unaffected by the man's mocking manner.

The marauder nodded slowly and waved at his men in the cars.

The three prisoners were brought forward and Jak could tell simply by the look of their clothes that these three were monks. He slowly got out of his car and joined the others where they stood behind Karidi with their firearms ready.

As the bags were pulled away from the prisoners' heads, all could see that they were indeed monks. The face paint had been smeared somewhat and their faces showed traces of rough beats with swollen areas, cracked lips and beginning bruises.

Karidi and the five men behind her, Jak included, reacted with pulling a face of disgust at the marauders for being this violent against people who everyone knew wouldn't fight back.

Jak felt like paying back the hospitality and almost regretted having left his gun at the backseat of his car.

He hardened his fists and tried to calm down. He knew he wouldn't last long in a fight right now, so he'd have to save up what ever strength he could in case he'd need it.

Meanwhile, the blue haired marauder had stepped up closer to Karidi.

"Ya' see anyone familiar?" he asked, his smile widening as he saw the dark faces of the spargans he had in front of him.

Karidi stared at him, her icy violet eyes silently speaking of violent death for anyone standing in her way.

This actually made the marauder step back a little and the smile faltered.

"You'll leave them all here and you'll bring the remaining two as well. You have no right to keep any of them prisoner, least of all if one of them is actually a spargan, as you're saying."

Karidi took another step forward, a little bit amused by seeing the marauder retreat another step as she did.

"Have I made myself clear?"

The blue haired man cleared his voice and nodded.

"Yes, m'am, but ya' see, we want something in return, or else ya' could forget about ever getting the boy back."

Jak harkened at the word "boy". Did the man mean to say they kept a _kid_ prisoner?

"And what is it you want in return, creep? Money? We have nothing of value to you," Karidi said with the hint of a growl in her voice. She'd heard the word as well and was getting angrier by the minute, trying hard to figure out just who it could be that had been caught.

"A-ah-ah," the marauder said, wagging an index finger back and forth in front of her face. "Remember that we're the ones with the hostage here. We make the demands and if ya' can't cope with them, we'll simply keep the goods. That boy's a good piece of entertainment in the ring, ya' know. He won't come off cheap."

Jak bit his lip hard as to not say anything regrettable. His arms were aching from the previous fight, but he still felt like jumping the man simply for talking about a living person as if he was nothing but merchandise on the daily market.

Something in Karidi's posture told him that she was thinking something along the same road as he. Then at least he wasn't the only one.

"What are your demands then, marauder?" Karidi hissed, making the last word sound like something she'd like to bury underneath a pile of manure.

The marauder ignored the hostile tension in her words and dared to smile again.

"Orbs. About 300 for each prisoner. And six sets of blaster modguns if ya' want the boy alongside the monks. A small price really," he said slowly, carefully intonating every syllable.

"We'll see about the guns," Karidi answered through her teeth, eyes narrowing. "As far as the orbs go, I can get you those within a few hours…"

Before anyone could react, she took a long stride forward and grabbed the marauder by his shirt, lifting him a little bit off the ground as she did.

The man swallowed hard as panic started to show in his eyes, but he kept a straight face.

"…_if_ you leave these three monks to us now. If not, you'll find out just how strong a true spargan woman can be," Karidi whispered sharply to his face, giving her words extra weight by throwing the man away from her, making him crash hard into one of his own men as she did.

"Ta' hell with ya' woman!" the man growled as he struggled back up on his feet.

"You first," Karidi answered him calmly.

There was a moment of silence between them, before the marauder gave in and motioned for his men to release the monks.

Two of Karidi's men took care of the freed prisoners as the marauders pulled back a few steps.

Jak was about to head over for his car, when suddenly he got the feeling that something was wrong and spun around to see that one of the marauder cars was aiming a missile against them.

Before Jak had a chance to call out a warning, the missile was launched and as he saw where it was heading, he ran for cover and managed to pull Karidi down with him behind her car as he threw himself down.

A mere second later, they felt the shockwave and the heat of fire as Jak's car exploded when the missile hit it.

Even before Karidi had gotten an order out to do so, the three monks had been placed in a car and one of the men drove off towards Spargus with them.

The rest of the men had taken up their guns and started shooting at the marauders as they got inside their cars.

"Nice reaction, goldilocks!" Karidi said with gratitude as she helped Jak up. "Now get in the car and we'll get out of here!"

Jak nodded silently and did as he was told. He had barely placed himself in the passenger seat when Karidi hit the gas and with spinning wheels they headed off in the same direction as the other car had gone a few seconds earlier.

They could hear the marauders shout out in-between the gunfire behind their backs.

"Hold on!" Karidi shouted out to Jak just before she reached the top of a dune, and one moment later the car was flying through the air, landing hard a number of meters further ahead.

Only a moment later they could hear another car land at the same spot and soon bullets were fired at them, even though the two cars were still too far apart for a hit.

Karidi cursed through her teeth.

"Could ya' get to the back and see if ya' can use the shooter back there to shake those darn jackals following us?"

Jak nodded his understanding and crawled over his seat and into the open back of the car, where he found a machine gun rigged to the car's frame.

He found a box of ammunition and loaded the gun while trying to stay put in the car as it bumped violently over the smaller dunes and one or another smaller rock sticking up from the sand.

A bullet suddenly swept close by his left ear and Jak looked up to see that the marauders following them had gotten much closer since the last time he'd looked.

Finally getting the ammunition in place, he stood up to manoeuvre the weapon and fired it off at the followers, who instantly saw to getting out of the way for the rain of bullets he sent at them.

Just as Jak thought he'd gotten rid of them, another of the marauder cars came roaring towards them from the side. Karidi made a sharp turn to avoid getting rammed, resulting in Jak falling out of the car as he didn't get any time to get a hold of something to keep him in place.

He landed hard upon the sand, the speed with which he'd been thrown sending him rolling around several times before he finally managed to stop the movement.

He could hear a car stopping somewhere near by and thought it best to get away from where he was as soon as possible.

But as the dizziness faded off and he tried to get back on his feet, Jak was violently shoved back down by the force of the flat side of someone's gun being pushed onto his back.

A hand was pressed down on the back of his head, forcing his face down into the hot sand.

"Not so fast, goldie. Ya' ain't getting nowhere."

Jak grimaced as he tried to move his face to the side in order to get some air.

"Let him breathe! We won't get any fun out of him if he's dead!" someone else called out for the man who was forcing Jak down, and soon enough the pressure on his head was released and he could get up from the sand, coughing violently as he tried to breathe again.

"Well ain't this a prize."

Jak recognized the voice of the blue haired man and looked up at him as his arms were pulled back behind his back and secured there by a thick rope.

The blue haired marauder smiled at him and pulled out the long dagger he'd been wearing at his side. He placed its sharp point against Jak's throat, forcing him to turn his face upwards.

"I'll be damned if I don't find this face a bit familiar," the man said with a mocking tune in his voice as he grabbed Jak's chin with his free hand and turned his head to the side as if to study his profile.

"I actually think we've managed to get us a grade one warrior, complete with a cute face and all!" the marauder said out loud and pulled teasingly at Jak's short bright green goatee, creating a series of laughter among his friends as he did.

The man put away the dagger and Jak got pulled up onto his feet by the man standing behind him.

"Now, seriously, I do believe I've seen your face before," the blue haired marauder said with a more serious tune in his voice as he studied Jak's face once more.

"What's your name?" he asked, squinting with his eyes as he did so, as if to sharpen his memory.

Jak didn't bother answering the question. Instead he lowered his eyebrows and stared darkly at his capturers.

The blue haired man harrumphed at this and stepped up close to him.

"I said, what's your name?" he repeated and without a warning slapped Jak hard in the face.

The marauders laughed, amused at the humiliation of the warrior.

Jak felt the stinging sensation spread from his cheek and across the entire left side of his face, feeling certain that the stinging area was getting red as the hit started to affect his already commenced headache.

He stared stubbornly at the sand beneath him as he tried to figure out a way to get out of this situation.

"So, ya' ain't talking? Nothing we can't change after a few hours of good care at the base camp, or what do ya' say boys?" the blue haired one stated and was answered with a cheer from his men.

"Well then, goldie, let's see if ya' can stand a chance against our champs," he said and winked at Jak as he looked up.

"Put him ta' sleep for a while, will ya'?" the man said and turned around to return to his waiting car.

Shortly after, Jak felt something hit him hard across the head.

He felt his body go limp as he closed his eyes and fell into the arms of unconsciousness.


	13. Reunion

_Sweet lords, I'm getting so into this story right now I can see the scenery like a movie on the inside of my eyelids whenever I close my eyes! XD I love these boys! ^^_

* * *

Sig got worried when he saw the first car arrive at the gates. Even more so as the second car drove in without being followed.

There should at least have been two more cars and a lot more men returning.

As Karidi got out of her car he walked towards her.

From the other car three beaten up monks were lifted out and taken care of by the medic Sig had brought together with some other spargans volunteering to help getting them to the infirmary.

"Where are the others?" Sig asked as soon as Karidi was close enough to hear him.

Karidi made a move as if to turn around, before she looked up into his face, a worried expression taking place in her own.

"The marauders tricked us. I know I should have foreseen it, but I didn't. They sent a missile upon Jak's car and it was only thanks to his reflexes that neither of us got killed in the process. We took off as fast as possible, but Raji, Kern and Sol never caught up with us. I had Jak with me until the marauders tried to ram us. Somehow he must have fallen out of the car, 'cause when I looked for him he was gone. I couldn't turn around to get him, sir. The marauders were still following me."

Karidi turned her eyes downwards, ashamed to have failed at getting all her men back.

"I'm sorry, sir."

Sig shook his head and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Don't be, baby. You saved three prisoners and got back to tell me about what happened. That's what matters."

Karidi looked back up at him.

"But Jak…"

"Jak's a good soldier and he can take care of himself. I bet that if he gets the chance, he'll take out the entire lot even before we get there to save him and the others. Don't you worry about him."

"If you say so, sir," Karidi said, slowly regaining some of the strength in her voice.

"I do say so. Now see to that you and your man get yourselves treated and try to find out if the monks know anything of the place where we might find these pests who caught them," Sig said and turned away to get back to the palace.

"Yes sir. But there's just one more thing…"

The king of Spargus stopped in his steps and slowly turned back around to face her, eyebrows raised in a question.

"Yes?"

"The marauders demands 1500 orbs and six sets of blaster modguns in return for the prisoners they've taken. We might have to consider agreeing to those demands," Karidi said with a stern face. "At least if we want to make them meet us again."

Sig smiled approvingly at her hint of a plan.

"Good lassie, you use your brain and this might just work our way."

---

Daxter looked up from trying to gnaw through the ropes around his wrists.

He'd managed to convince the marauder who'd kept watch the night before to tie his hands in front of him instead of behind his back, meaning he'd do much better fighting if his arms weren't popped out of their sockets the next time they pulled him into the ring.

The sent out group of marauders was returning with Dart in the lead.

They were noisy and acted strangely optimistic for having lost the three monks they'd brought with them.

Could it really be so that the spargans had actually agreed to their demands?

This didn't sound likely to Daxter's ears, but judging from their behaviour he couldn't think of any other reason for them to cheer as they did when greeted by their comrades.

Holta slowly pulled himself up in a sitting position, a little hindered by the one good hand being tied to his back and wincing slightly as the movement pulled at one of his wounds.

They'd been there for two days now and the wounds from the metalhead attack still hadn't healed completely, mostly due to the bad caring.

As for himself, Daxter felt slightly mangled.

His body ached in places he didn't want to know about and his face felt all swollen from the bruising.

But apart from that everything was good.

At least he hadn't been pulled into another fight yet, which meant he might just survive this day as well.

"I wonder what they're on about over there," Daxter mumbled, more to himself than to Holta.

The monk focused his eyes on the group of returning men and shook his shoulders.

"I can't say. Too many of them standing in the way," he said in a low voice. "But it appears to me that they've got something with them."

Daxter, who'd returned to his gnawing, looked back up and tried to see for himself.

"Aaww, ya' think they've got another one to put in here?" he asked with a troubled face.

He really didn't like the idea of another spargan being caught.

Not just for the sake of the spargan, but because if this guy didn't recognize Daxter, which was pretty much expected to happen, Daxter's title as being a spargan would disappear.

He didn't like to think about what this might mean for the sake of his life.

He closed his eyes and tried to hear what was said over at the gathered crowd.

"Nice catch, Dart!" someone yelled out and laughed as someone else seemed to hit the "catch" in question.

"Hold it with the beating, boys! Leave something for the arena, will ya'?"

This was Dart's voice.

"We'll just have to let him rest a little, but I bet he'll put on a good show for us."

More laughing and some words of ridicule were thrown out at the prisoner.

"What did ya' do ta' him Dart? Ya' cut out his tongue or something?"

"Hush now," Dart said, voice only slightly tinted with annoyance at the ruckus around him. "Get him in the cage, will ya'?"

Daxter opened his eyes and looked out through the bars towards the marauders. He caught sight of Dart's blue hair and focused on the area close to him, figuring he'd be close to the prisoner, but he couldn't see who it was.

There were too many marauders in the way.

"You better get away from the door, or they'll hit you when they open it," Holta warned Daxter as the crowd came closer.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Daxter answered and unwillingly he backed away from the grids he'd pressed up against in his try to see what was going on.

One of the marauders came up to the cage and unlocked the chains keeping the door shut.

"Get back, ya' filths!" he yelled at Daxter and Holta.

Daxter felt like talking back, but Holta simply shook his head at him, noticing the spite in his friend's eyes.

"It's not worth it. Save your strength."

Daxter silently agreed to keep his thoughts about the stinking ogre of a man for himself and managed to shuffle himself further back inside the cage.

He turned his back toward the door as he did this, so as to make sure the marauder wouldn't be able to read his lips as he mimed out the insults he had in store.

Therefore he didn't see the new prisoner as he was brought towards the cage and pushed inside.

"Now don't ya' try anything funny, or you'll be sorry!" someone called out to them as the door to the cage closed.

Daxter heard a low moan from the new guy, lying somewhere behind his back.

Deciding it was best he got the introduction over with while no marauders were there to hear them, Daxter slowly turned around to face the spargan.

And found his words trapped halfway up in his throat as he recognized the green rooted blond hair of the beaten up guy lying in front of him, face down in the dirt and with his hands tied behind his back.

Holta looked from one to the other.

Having recognized the man himself, he simply waited for Daxter to say the first words.

Daxter couldn't believe what was happening. To him this situation seemed just about impossible.

Jak couldn't be caught by some stinking marauders! Not _Jak_!

As he sat staring at his best friend, Daxter realised his mouth was open and shut it quickly.

He'd been about to say something, but he couldn't figure out what it was.

Then he noticed that Jak wasn't moving.

This finally shook him out of the paralysis he'd been experiencing and he hurried to scramble over to Jak's side, worried down to his bones for his friend.

"Hey, Jak, you ok, pal?"

He gently laid his hands on one of Jak's shoulders and carefully turned him over to lie on his back.

A bruise was forming underneath his left eye and he had a scar at the right cheek which Daxter knew he hadn't seen before, but apart from this, Jak looked just like he remembered him, but for being a bit pale.

"Hey, wake up, Jak! Say something, _anything_!" Daxter squeaked out, partly choking on the words as he tried to shake some movement back into his unconscious friend.

"Shaking him won't do any good," Holta objected from where he was sitting. "I think it'd be best if you just let him come to on his own."

"Aw, cripes! Don't tell me what to do, I know this guy inside out!" Daxter snapped at him. "And right now he needs to _get up_!"

He turned back to Jak and forced down the growing lump of emotions that collided inside of him at seeing him like this.

"Ya' hear me, Jak? Ya' gotta' get up, right now, or I'll never forgive ya'!"

He shook him slightly one more time, before he gave it up.

Suddenly it was as if all air had gone out of him and he could feel tears running down his cheeks.

"Ya' can't do this to me, Jak. I can't take it ya' know? You're supposed to be invincible. If you're not, then I'd have to get worried, and I can't stand that, ya' know?" he whispered in a broken voice and laid his arms upon his friend's chest, lowering his head until it rested on top of them.

Holta didn't know how to react.

Clearly this was hard upon Daxter, but how would Jak react when he woke up to find the friend he'd thought to be dead sitting next to him, being very much alive?

Suddenly he noticed a movement in Jak's face.

Daxter was still resting with his face down in his arms and didn't see this. Holta thought about making him aware of Jak seeming to be waking up, but he didn't want to say anything in case he'd been mistaken.

Jak could feel a light weight pressing down on his chest.

At first he had some trouble remembering what had happened, but the memory soon caught up with him and he tried to open his eyes.

His body was aching all over and he felt nauseous.

And on top of it he couldn't move his hands.

He tried to make some noise for the weight to be taken off his chest, and managed to produce a low moaning.

The weight shifted.

Then he heard a voice that almost made his heart stop.

"Jak? Ya' ok?"

It couldn't be…

And yet he knew the voice so well.

Through the years he'd grown to love the sound of it and when he'd thought it silenced forever he'd memorized it inside his heart.

Was he really hearing it right? He couldn't be.

That would either mean he was dead, or he was hallucinating.

He had to see for himself.

Expecting to find a strange face looking back at him, he finally opened his eyes, squinting against the bright sky above until he'd adjusted his sight.

Someone was leaning over him.

A dirty face with bright skin and freckles, protruding front teeth in a broad mouth with thin lips and a pair of bright blue eyes. All of it topped with a mess of blond rooted fiery red hair.

Jak gasped for air and clipped with his eyelids to clear his vision.

"D-Dax?" he breathed out in doubt, feeling a faint flutter of hope in his stomach as he did.

"The one and only, babe! Bless the precursors, am I glad to hear your voice!" the apparition answered him with a smile spreading across his face.

The features were more adult; the jaw line had broadened somewhat, his eyes were smaller in comparison to the rest of his face, the nose finally seemed to fit him and the ears didn't look too long, but all in all this was truly the face Jak remembered from his childhood and early teens.

His best friend was alive and he was there with him at long last.

"B-but how…? I thought you were… What happened…?" He tried to find the right words, but nothing he thought of seemed to fit.

Daxter hooked his hands behind Jak's neck and pulled him up in sitting position before he let go.

"One thing at a time, gorgeous. I'm a freak of nature, ya' know that? One would think that being dipped twice in that black ooze of doom would kill a guy, but not me! The darn juju gods must like me, 'cause when I came to in that cave, I was back to normal! Can ya' believe it? And all thanks to me landing in a pool of the stuff and being spit out again!" Daxter jabbered on, almost biting his tongue in his eagerness to tell Jak of all that had happened to him, barely noticing the growing look of amazement in Jak's eyes as he let the fact of his friend being alive sink into his mind.

"Dax," he said suddenly and Daxter cut himself off in the middle of a word, hearing the emotion in Jak's voice. "Is it really you? I'm not dreaming, am I?"

"Jak, I admit I'm the stuff of dreams, but yeah, this is really me, alive and kicking. Who'd ya' think I was? I told ya' I wouldn't leave ya', and I don't intend to brake my promises if I can help it," Daxter answered, giving Jak a thumbs up. "It's me all right."

At these words Jak suddenly leaned forward, placing his chin on Daxter's shoulder and pressed him self as close to him as possible with the hands being tied behind his back.

At first, Daxter was a bit taken aback by this, but soon enough he relaxed and laid his hands on his friend's shoulder, figuring it was as good a hug as he could offer at the moment.

"Yeah, I'm glad to have ya' back too, pal," he mumbled silently into the hair on Jak's neck.


	14. Picking one's fights

_Yeah, I know, it's been a while since last update. I've gotten a job. But, I'm trying my best to get the stroy up here as fast as possible, so just bare with me. ^^ As a treat, I'll update two to three chapters at a time though. ;)_

* * *

Jak couldn't take his eyes off Daxter.

During the night that had passed, he'd been terrified to fall asleep and wake up to find out that it had only been a dream.

Instead he'd spent the night looking at his friend sleeping next to him.

He still had a hard time believing that the young man in front of him was actually his best friend.

Daxter had, with a little help from Holta, told him about all that had happened to him during their time apart, but it was still hard to simply get past the fact of him being alive.

The part about him not being an ottsel anymore was another thing he'd have to get used to.

Daxter looked up from his tries to loosen the ropes around his wrists and gave him a small smile.

"Hey, big guy, stop staring at me like that. Makes me feel weird or something," he mumbled and as Jak noticed a slight blush on his friend's cheeks, he turned his eyes away for moment.

"Sorry," he apologised, seemingly embarrassed to have been caught looking. "I just can't believe it's really you, you know? I'm just so… so happy you're alive. That's all. I've missed you."

Daxter threw him a quick glance as he heard what he said.

Jak had never been good with words, and that was an understatement.

But what he couldn't do with his voice, his face did way better.

It had always been easy for Daxter to see what Jak wanted to say, simply by looking at him. His eyes were usually as easy to read as an open book.

But this time the look in Jak's partly turned away face confused Daxter.

He'd always thought of Jak as a very emotional guy, no difference whether it was anger or joy he felt; he felt it all the way.

But now, it wasn't joy or anger that showed in his face.

It was rather something reminding of sorrow, but mixed up with something else.

What ever it was, Jak was filled up with it and somehow this emotional enigma triggered something inside Daxter's own mind and he could feel a strange aching in his chest as he thought of it.

In a try to clear his thoughts, Daxter shook his head violently.

He was thinking rubbish; or at least he thought he did.

As soon as Daxter returned his attention to the ropes, Jak reassumed his watching of him.

There were so many things he wanted to say right now, so many words he'd wanted to have said when he first thought him gone.

But he couldn't make himself say anything and the words got stuck in his throat.

Holta sat quietly and tried to meditate to make the time pass a bit easier.

Somehow he couldn't concentrate though. The noise from the marauders in the camp around them and Daxter's constant interruption of the silent periods that every once in a while passed by was too much. Jak's silent observation of his friend didn't help either.

Now this was something interesting to occupy his mind with though. Daxter obviously felt a huge amount of respect towards his friend, and still he could throw him a comment that in Holta's ears sounded very much like an insult whenever he felt like it, and Jak simply smiled at him.

Daxter had told him about Jak and their history.

Holta of course knew very well he should take some things said by Daxter lightly, but for some reason Jak didn't seem to mind the exaggerated bragging that his redheaded friend came up with as he talked.

Then again, Jak had thought Daxter to be dead and had only recently realised this wasn't the deal, so maybe it was simply the happiness of the moment that made him sit like that and stare admiringly in silence as his friend went on about everything and nothing in particular.

Suddenly the three of them heard the rattle of chains as the door to the cage was unlocked and they looked up to see who it was.

"Ah, so I see you've been getting friendly in here, am I right?" Dart said with a mocking smile on his lips as he stepped inside the cage, followed by the marauder Daxter had knocked out at their first encounter out in the desert, the one named Gauter.

"Yeah, dream on dirtbag," Daxter muttered under his breath as he gave him a look filled with disgust for the man.

Dart either didn't hear it, or simply ignored it skillfully, walking on without moving a muscle in his face.

He stopped in front of Jak where he was sitting and hunched down so that his face was in the same level as Jak's.

"Now, I've been thinking about this over night and ya' know what, goldie? I finally figured it out. Why I recognize ya', I mean. You're that fella' who won the races at Kras City some years ago, right? I've seen your face on the screen a _million_ times!"

Jak snorted at the comment and simply stared at him in silence, trying to drill a hole through his head by simply looking.

"But I still can't figure out your name, though," Dart said, seemingly unaffected by the look of kill in Jak's eyes.

"Ya' gonna' keep yappin' about some tv-show or are ya' gonna' say something important soon?" Daxter interrupted and moved closer to Jak.

Dart looked up and met Daxter's gaze with his own.

"As a matter of fact I am," he said slowly and straightened himself up.

"Gauter here wanted to say hello before the fight. Apparently he wants a re-match."

Daxter gulped loudly at this and looked up at the muscular man with an uncertain smile.

"Oh, yeah? Really?" he said, voice a bit shaky as Gauter took a step closer and towered over him.

"I think I owe ya' a hit in the head," Gauter grumbled and bent down in order to grab Daxter by the shirt.

But before anyone had any time to react, Jak got up on his feet and made a fast jump kick, turning in the air to get more leverage, all in seemingly one smooth movement.

Gauter was down on the ground gasping for air within a second and Dart had taken a surprised step backwards as he stared at Jak.

Jak didn't care about the marauders. Instead he got down on his knees beside Daxter, who slowly opened his eyes after having closed them shut thinking he was going to receive a serious blow.

"W-what the…?" he stammered out as he looked into Jak's troubled eyes.

He looked over Jak's shoulder at Gauter lying on his back and trying to grasp what had just happened and then he looked back at Jak.

"Wow, Jak, you've gotten faster, haven't ya'?" he breathed out, relieved to have escaped the beating.

Jak gave him a crooked smile at this comment and shook his head slowly.

Back at where he was standing, Dart suddenly got out of the shock as he'd heard Daxter speak out Jak's name. Dart remembered that name all too well and he started to smile even wider than before as he realised what it meant to have caught him.

"So you're _that _guy?" he asked slowly and moved towards the cage door.

Jak turned slowly and got back on his feet.

Dart pulled out the dagger from the hilt in his belt and waved with it in front of Jak as if it were a finger.

"Oh, ya' think ya' can get out of here now, don't ya'? Think I'm scared 'cause you're some kind of a hero, do ya'?"

Still Jak didn't say a word. Instead he took a step forward.

The expression in Dart's face stiffened and he steadied the hand holding the dagger.

"Ya' ain't getting out of here alive, ya' know. Jak, Mar, son of the spargan king and heir to the throne of Haven."

Jak flinched at the sound of his name and the mentioning of Damus.

This marauder apparently had something more than his friends when it came to using his head.

Having seen this flinch, Dart felt safe to go on.

" I know about ya'. And I'm telling ya', in here, your heritage will only make things worse for ya'."

He stepped out of the cage and slammed the door shut.

"You'll be getting a big welcoming in the arena I'm sure. Especially after I tell them all who you _really_ are. It's been a while now since we had royalty to fight for us. I'll enjoy this."

As he said this he waved for some other marauders to come over to him.

"Get the tough guy out of there, 'cause we've got a fight for him!" he said and sent the marauders inside.

Daxter suddenly got up on his feet as well and pulled at the back of Jak's shirt.

"Hey, don't let them get ya', pal! That place is no good! They'll kill ya', and I ain't up to loosing ya' now that you're finally back!" he said in a grave voice.

"I think I'll manage, Dax. Don't worry," Jak answered calmly and stepped away. "Just try not to get in the way of anything, will ya'?"

Daxter shook his head in spite as he moved back, knowing there was probably no way for him to stop the marauders from getting to Jak. The trouble was that with his hands tied, Jak would be an easy target for those men.

Or at least he _should_ have been.

Jak didn't wait for the marauders to act. Instead he rushed towards them, head down.

Surprised, the two men tried to get out of the way by separating, thinking Jak would keep on running straight into the cage wall.

But Jak had figured out that this would be their chosen manoeuvre and instantly turned towards one of them.

Jumping off the ground he somersaulted in the air, creating a greater impact force as he landed feet down on top of the head of the man he'd aimed for.

The marauder immediately toppled down, unconscious and as limp as a rag doll.

Jak didn't stop at this, but turned towards the other man, who was now charging at him in a try to catch him off-guard.

But Jak only smiled at this and dropped down to the ground, using his movement downward to spin his legs around from underneath him. In doing so, his feet shot straight up and hit the marauder in the chest, hard enough to make him stumble back to catch his breath.

Jak used the pause to jump back up on his feet and while the other man was still trying to breathe, Jak jumped up, spun in the air and hit him straight in the face with both his feet, sending the man crashing down onto his back.

By now Gauter had gotten back on his feet. Seeing the way his companions had been taken down, he didn't carry any desire to join them and started for the door.

"Oh no ya' don't!" Dart growled at Gauter as he tried to open the door.

"Ya' get back there and ya' finish him or bring him here! Ya' got that?"

Seeing no other choice than to obey, Gauter turned back towards Jak, who stood in the centre of the cage with a wicked smile on his lips.

Daxter looked at the scenery in utter silence, overwhelmed to see Jak being this superior to those big men even as his arms were kept at his back.

He realised that he'd just about forgotten how good Jak had been at fighting without a gun.

Gauter rushed at Jak head on, roaring with anger, but Jak simply waited him out.

A high jump and a somersault got him landing right behind the marauder's back and before the man had a chance to turn around and face him, Jak kicked at the back of his knees, making him fall over at once and landing face down on the ground.

A crowd of marauders had gathered outside the cage, drawn by the sound of fighting, and now they cheered out with glee as Jak made a finishing move, jumping up to kick at Gauter's head as he tried to get up.

The marauder was down for the counting and Jak spit at the ground as he shot Dart a challenging look.

"Can't you do better than that?" he yelled out to him.

The audience of marauders silenced in their cheering as Dart opened the door once more and stepped inside.

"As a matter of fact," he said slowly, looking disappointedly at the bodies of his men lying immovable inside the small space that the cage offered its inhabitants.

"…I guess we can," he finished and let a calm grin play in his face as he locked his eyes on a spot somewhere behind Jak.

Jak grit his teeth as he had to turn around and look at what Dart was talking about, and suddenly the air went out of him.

"Ya' move a single muscle to do anything we don't tell ya' to, your friend here gets a closer look at the bullets."

Another marauder had reached out from the other side of the cage bars and grabbed Daxter by the neck. Right now he was aiming his gun at the terrified redhead's face and Jak couldn't see a way to save him.

"Ya' see, we may have our rules, but we don't play fair," Dart said from behind Jak's back.

The on-looking marauders started to laugh.

Jak lowered his eyes, suddenly feeling powerless and weak.

Daxter felt his heart drop in his chest at the sight of Jak being defeated by such a foul trick and feeling guilty for not having looked out for himself, Daxter closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Jak," he whispered out and forced himself to look at his friend as he did.

Jak looked up at him with a calm expression in his face, eyes telling him it wasn't his fault.

Then he turned around and faced Dart.

"What would you have me do, then?" he asked, voice filled with rage.

Dart smiled and pointed with his dagger towards an opening in the close by mountain wall.

"You, my dear warrior, are going to fight in the arena."

---


	15. When darkness comes

Walking through the tunnel, Jak tried to think of a way for escaping the place.

Marauders filled the space between him and the mountain walls.

A loud noise of arguing and shouting voices was thrown around in echoes, making the crowd sound even greater than it was and resulting in even louder shouting.

There apparently had to be more ways leading into the tunnel from the mountain, since the crowd was steadily growing, but Jak couldn't see the connecting tunnels for all the marauders that were in his way.

He didn't care about the insults that were thrown at him, nor did he react to the pushing, pulling and kicking.

Someone even threw an egg at him.

As the shell cracked open against his shoulder, the one throwing laughed, but when he didn't seem to react to the act, the laughter died out quickly and no one else tried it.

Jak focused on what was ahead of him.

He would have to fight, no doubt about that.

Against _who_ or _what_ or _how many_, he didn't know, but he had to do his best to survive it.

If not for his own sake, then at least for Daxter's.

So that he could tell him everything that he hadn't said.

So he could save him.

After what seemed like almost fifteen minutes of walking, someone shoved Jak through a gateway and as he looked at his surroundings, he realised he'd just about entered the arena that Dart had spoken of. The same arena in which they'd forced Daxter to fight for his life.

As the crowd gathered at the stands around the open field of entertainment battle, Jak could hear Dart's voice call out for silence from somewhere above and behind him.

He turned to look, but couldn't find the man in the crowd.

"Well, then, marauders, we've got a great treat for ya' this evening!" Dart said, voice loud and clear in the sudden quiet that had stretched out throughout the cave that was the arena.

"In the ring we have one of the greatest, most priced warriors of the oh-so _glorious _city of Spargus," he continued. The statement was followed by a series of loud boos and foul commenting from the audience and Dart waited it out before he continued.

"This man, this _hero_ has been caught, by yours truly with the help of our finest men."

A cheering aroused and Dart once again waited for the crowd to settle.

"Now, we will get to see just how great this spargan is! How strong is really this priced warrior? And most importantly; will he be able to live up to his bloodline? Will he fight as greatly and stubbornly as his father?"

By now the crowd was spellbound by Dart's words.

Jak had given up on his search for the man, and instead he tried to find a way to loosen the ropes that were still tying his hands to his back.

"You wonder who this man is? I will tell ya'! I give ya' the hero of Haven City, the defeater of the dark makers and the winner of the races at Kras City; Jak, son of Damus, late king of Spargus!"

Now the entire stadium was shaken by the roar that broke out.

Now they all knew who he was.

There wasn't a single marauder who didn't recognise at least one of those titles.

And not a single one of them liked what they knew about it.

Someone suddenly threw down a knife that landed blade down in the hard sand ground.

Jak didn't wait for something else to happen that might blow this chance he'd been given. He threw himself down with his back against the thrown weapon. He managed to catch it in his back-bound hands and started sawing through the ropes as quickly as he could.

While he was lying there, Jak could see another gate open in the far end of the field and someone was stepping into the arena.

Dart raised his voice anew and a forced silence spread.

"Let the fight, begin!"

Jak was back on his feet even before the last word was spoken.

The knife slipped out of his hands, but he didn't try to get it back, knowing that he now had to take care of every second he had if he wanted to stay alive.

As the marauder in the other end started running towards him, Jak got into a dead run to get around him.

A little confused to find his target had suddenly moved out of his sight, the marauder stopped to try and locate the missing part of the scenery.

The very instant his opponent had stopped, Jak turned to run directly against him.

With a high jump he turned his feet forward in the air and hit the marauder feet first straight in the back, making him topple over and fall face down on the ground.

The crowd was wild, but Jak didn't feel like wasting his time thanking the appreciation. Instead he spotted a dagger stuck into the man's belt and managed to snatch it up into his hands before the marauder started to move again.

"What? Ya' little thief…!" the man barged out in rage as he realised he'd lost his weapon.

Jak ignored him and sawed at his ropes in silence as he backed away from the enemy.

Just as the other man started to move towards him, Jak finally got through the ropes.

He threw the dagger away and as the surprised marauder followed it with his eyes, Jak got his arms free and rolled his shoulders to get the blood circulation to work throughout his veins again, feeling the muscles ache as he flexed the arms to get the sense of touch back into them.

"Well ain't ya' a clever one…" the marauder grumbled and smiled. "Good. It'll be more fun this way."

But before the big and heavily muscled man had a chance to try out whatever plan he had in mind, Jak decided to test his newly recovered freedom to move.

A spinning high jump and joined fists was all it took to send the marauder flying backwards, loosing consciousness even before he hit the ground.

Jak studied his hands as he moved his fingers slowly with a cracking sound to follow.

He felt a bit stiff, but it was getting better by the minute.

The audience had turned silent.

Then, as the realisation grew upon them, the marauders started chanting for a new fighter to enter the arena.

Suddenly a gate opened in the other end and Jak turned his attention towards this new enemy.

There was a loud shriek, sending a shrill of unwanted fear through the marrow of Jak's bones, and not long after, the audience roared with pleasure.

Entering the arena were two muscular beasts on four legs.

Their purple skin was glittering with something Jak preferred to think of as sweat, all though he was pretty sure these creatures didn't have the ability to sweat.

Sharp needle point claws tipped each finger or toe, the long necks were protected by a row of poisonous spikes and the whip-like tails were pointed with spikes just as lethal as the spikes on their necks.

A pair of triangular faces with a metallic glow to the skin turned Jak's way as he made a move.

The glowing yellow of the skull gems in the middle of the beasts' foreheads were directed towards him like the headlights of a race car on it's way to run him over.

Jak swallowed hard.

Metalheads.

He had to fight metalheads empty-handed.

He _hated_ metalheads, hated the odds.

One at a time they were possible to take on, if he himself was well rested and without injuries.

Two at once was a bit tougher.

Adding his aching arms and bad rest to the counting, Jak quickly felt his chances dropping downwards in a high speed.

"_Fuck_."

As soon as the word was uttered, the monsters started moving across the field to get to him.

Jak turned around and found the thrown dagger, leapt for it, caught it as he rolled past and got back up on his feet to keep moving away from the danger.

The metalheads stopped at the fallen marauder and started to rip at his flesh.

This woke the man up and as he started screaming, the crowd on the stands did as well, but not for someone to help him, but urging the monsters on, excited to see the blood.

Jak wanted to close his eyes against the horrifying scenery, but he knew he had to keep an eye on the beasts, unless he wanted to end up being the dessert.

The marauder's screaming was cut short as one of the metalheads tore his windpipe open.

But as the man stopped moving, the creatures feasting on him lost their interest and turned around to find something new to torment.

And as they found Jak once more, they gave up that terrible shriek from before and started running.

Taking to his feet himself, Jak didn't spare any time to look over his shoulder at the monsters chasing him.

Therefore, he didn't see when the pair split up and was surprised to find himself rushing _towards_ one of them only a short moment later.

"Oh, shit!" he breathed out to himself.

He turned quickly towards the centre of the arena and was followed instantly by the beast who'd cut off his way, but the one who'd been behind his back took another rout.

As he noticed this in the corner of his eyes, Jak realised that they were toying with him.

They wanted to wear him out.

Instantly he stopped and spun on his heel, ending up facing the chasing metalhead.

This didn't only shock the audience, but it seemed to surprise the metalhead as well, which was what Jak had hoped for to happen.

Using the small opening he got as the metalhead tried to decide what to do, Jak ran straight up to it with the dagger raised, hitting the monster right between the eyes with the blade in as clean a cut he could ever get. He pushed heavily at the handle of the dagger and drove the blade all the way into the thick skull.

The metalhead didn't even have time to react to the blow, and without even a sound, it fell to the ground with the dagger still in its forehead as a horn sticking out.

The skull gem popped loose within seconds and as the body started to de-materialize, Jak moved out of the way for the other metalhead as it came rushing towards him.

Smelling the death of its sibling, the beast roared out in what might have been rage or sorrow, before it attacked.

Jumping towards its prey, it spread out its lethal claws and opened its jaws, ready to sink its collection of glittering razor-sharp teeth into fresh flesh and hard bone alike.

Jak threw himself out of the way in the very last instant, sending the metalhead head first to the ground at the spot where he'd been standing a mere second before.

A stinging sensation of heat made Jak flinch, thinking he'd been scratched by a claw and he looked down at his arms to see if this was so.

But he wasn't harmed.

Instead he'd simply forgotten to look where he'd jumped.

As it were now, he was standing on all four with his hands and lower legs sunk deep into the pool of dark eco into which the recently killed metalhead had turned.

Jumping flashes of purple electricity crawled up his arms and legs as his body absorbed the blackish liquid through the skin.

The surge of energy sent through his veins and pumped out through his entire body was an instant rush of overwhelming power.

Knowing he needed the strength, Jak didn't stop the transformation that raced through him.

While his skin turned into a greyish white shade, he felt the black horns drill their way out of the top of his head with a brute force and his vision turned sharper as the surroundings got a purple tint.

He could suddenly smell the metalhead as it turned to face him.

And the metalhead knew it had a new enemy in front of it.

An enemy it was instantly afraid of.

The dark inside Jak smiled, pleased with the reaction from his prey.

_Let me fight!_ he roared in Jak's mind, and he let him have his way.

A surge of dark energy gathered in the palm of his hand and a long stride later he released the bomb of dark eco turned into electrical light.

The metalhead vanished into thin air and the beast that was Jak let out an amused laugh as the dark eco of the destroyed metalhead sunk into his skin, refilling his powers.

He wanted more.

But as his eyes turned towards the audience, Jak tried to break the spell of bloodlust raging through his veins.

_There are no more enemies! Stop!_

But the darkness didn't care for the difference between enemies and innocents.

It simply wanted to fight.

He wanted blood; on his hands and in his mouth. He wanted to feel flesh rip open underneath his claws.

Suddenly he locked his eyes on Dart.

With a roar he ran for the wall separating them and Dart stepped back, the smell of his fear urging the beast on.

He found a grip at the wall, using his claws, and scaled it within seconds.

By now the audience was in an uproar and the few marauders who had brought their weapons, started to pick them up and aim for the raging monster Jak had become.

But they were too slow.

Jak had run up to Dart in a speed that almost made it look like time had stopped for the surrounding mass of people.

Just as he raised his hand to strike at Dart, the marauder threw himself down, avoiding the blow and reaching out for something on the row below him.

Daxter yelled out as he was pulled up by the neck of his shirt.

He'd been forced to see the entire fight. And now he was used as Dart's insurance to stay alive.

As he was pulled up in front of the raging darkness he knew to be a grotesque modification of his best friend, Daxter tried not to scream or show his fear. He simply forced himself to stare into those dark pits of eyes and hoped for Jak to actually recognise him.

"Oh please, motherofallthingsholyandallthefuzzynessoftheprecursorsdon'tkillme!" he mumbled out in panic.

Jak stopped his hand in mid air as he caught sight of the flash of red hair.

The instant memory of all the things he connected with that hair suddenly cleared his vision.

The fear in his friend's face made him feel completely numb.

Without noticing it, Jak lowered his arm as his skin slowly returned to its normal colour and the horns retreated back into his skull.

"Dax…" he breathed out in a painful whisper, trying to reassure him that he wouldn't harm him.

"Jak, _run_!" Daxter screamed out.

One second later the first bullet was fired.


	16. Bad things

Sig felt a shiver of apparition run through his spinal cord and shook his shoulders to get rid of the uneasy feeling this awakened in the centre of his stomach.

Something wasn't right.

He had wanted to come along on this mission for more than one reason.

First of all he found it important that he, as the leader of his people, showed that he cared about every one of them and that he'd never leave them without help if they would need it.

Secondly, he had to admit to himself that he was indeed worried for Jak.

There was something special about that man which Sig simply couldn't get around.

He liked him and that he did enough to want to keep him safe at all times if possible.

Somehow it was like Sig had missed something in his life and when he'd met Jak, that empty space had been filled.

Thinking about it almost made Sig smile.

Yes, Jak was special. Sort of like a little brother he had to look after. And that was precisely what Sig was doing. The only thing that kept getting in his way was Jak's tendency to get in trouble simply by being alive.

The old wasteland warrior sighed heavily and tried to focus on what was lying ahead of him.

Karidi stood a few steps away from him, her gun ready to fire.

The tough woman had demanded to get along on the ride as well, and Sig hadn't found any reason to deny her this, even though he couldn't quite figure out why she was so persistent on this matter.

He figured it would have to do with some sort of will to make up for what she thought had been her mistake. He didn't feel like arguing with her about this though.

Even though she didn't quite look capable of it, Karidi was a really good fighter and she was strong in a way that even made Sig think twice about making her angry.

Beside Karidi to her right there were two other of his men and on his other side he had another five of them.

With them they'd brought six cars fully equipped for a fight in case things would come to the worst.

Five of those cars were standing visible to anyone just a few steps behind the gathered group of spargan warriors.

The sixth car was parked some way off behind a high dune and was used as a safe spot for the monk they'd brought with them.

This extra car was also meant as a transport for the prisoners of the marauders, once they'd been freed.

Sig gazed at the far off horizon of soft yellowish dunes and tried to think about something else than the grains of sand that had found their way into the small opening between his skin and the mechanical reinforcements that made his prosthetic eye function.

He made a mental note to himself that he would have to make someone take a look at that later, before it got any worse.

All was quiet apart from the desert breeze that was sweeping across the shifting hills of sand which made out the landscape.

Sig caught himself thinking it was almost beautiful and that if it hadn't been for the seriousness of the situation they were in, he would probably have enjoyed the view and the stillness a lot more than he did now.

The marauders were later than expected.

Karidi had seen to that the message had been sent to the marauders' given communicator frequency just about two hours ago.

There should've been someone there to accept the payment by now.

The dark skinned female commander turned to look at him with a question written in her grey eyes.

She'd started to notice the unexpected absence as well and was getting worried.

"Where's the monk?" Sig suddenly asked, breaking the silence that had crept up on them during the last twenty minutes of the passed hour.

With a small gesture of her hand and a few whispered words, Karidi sent for one of her men to get the monk.

As the warrior returned with the young monk, Karidi took another look at the desert surroundings, hoping to discover a dust cloud disturbing the stillness of the dunes, telling her of the marauders' approach.

But she saw nothing.

The monk had been able to tell them some parts of the geographical facts he'd been able to memorise about the place where the marauders had taken him and the others. Now Sig figured he should try and put this knowledge to use.

"You called for me, sir?"

Sig turned towards the monk and nodded.

"Yes. I need you to remember that base camp again. And I need for you to try and find the directions for it. We're going hunting, and as it is, you're the best sniffer crocka-dog I've got."

The monk nodded and closed his eyes for a moment to recollect what he could about the surroundings of the cage and the camp, before he scanned the area for anything familiar to use as guidance.

With no hope at succeeding, he almost missed it.

He turned to look again and then he slowly raised his hand to point out the direction.

"Do you see the outline of that mountain over there?" he said and Sig nodded slowly.

There was a lonely mountain top breaking the otherwise so flat line of the horizon some way to the north west from where they were standing.

"Yes. What about it?"

"If I'm not mistaken, that's where we'll find the camp, sir. At the very foot of it."

Sig smiled and thanked his luck when picking the meeting spot earlier that day.

"Then let's hope you're right, cherry."

---------

Daxter slowly opened his eyes.

He was lying on the ground and his head was hurting a bit where he'd hit it.

There were still a lot of noise around him from fighting marauders and a distant sound of gunfire.

The moment the first shots had gone off, panic had spread and as not all shooters aimed before firing, some of their own men got hit and so the domino effect was at a roll.

For some reason Daxter found out that he was having trouble breathing freely, but at least his hands had been freed of the rope.

As he moved and tried to get up, Daxter realised there was something holding him down.

Something, or someone.

A slight feel of disgust at the thought of being forced to the ground by a dead body passed through his mind, but he shoved it away for later attacks of anxiety and pushed hard to get the dead weight off his back.

As he turned to look at the person that rolled off of him, a cold chill went through his body.

"_Jak_!"

He froze for an instant before he leaned forward and tried to shake some movement into his friend.

In a few seconds he remembered how Jak had stepped up in front of him as the gunfire had started.

He'd thrown Daxter down on the ground and told him to stay down and that was just about all he'd been able to recall, apart from seeing Dart flee the scene as soon as he'd noticed that Jak had lost his interest in him.

"Jak, ya' stupid bastard! I told ya' to _run_, didn't I? Now get up and get out of here, ya' hear me?!" he yelled out as desperation started to build up inside his chest.

Just as he was starting to think the worst, Jak slowly opened his eyes.

Relieved, Daxter threw himself around his neck with a forced smile on his lips.

"Finally! I thought ya' had gone up and _died_ on me! Don't ya' ever _do that_ again!"

Jak coughed and Daxter released him for the moment, afraid that he might have strangled him.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, peachy," Jak answered in a strained voice and tried to pull a reassuring smile into his face, but Daxter noticed the stains of blood on his chin and didn't let him trick him.

"You're not OK, man!" he exclaimed worriedly. "That red stuff you're coughing up is your _blood_!" Daxter pointed out, the panic getting pack into his voice.

"I guess," Jak replied drowsily. He was starting to feel a bit light-headed.

And that's when Daxter noticed the spreading red stains on Jak's shirt.

"Jak! You're friggin' leaking!"

Taking a look around them, Daxter tried to find a safer spot for him to see to Jak's wounds and found that place to be in a small opening underneath the stands they were on at the moment.

"Sorry, pal, but you'll just have to deal with some bumping, 'cause there's no way in all the precursor universes that I'll be able to _lift _your sorry ass all the way over there," he explained to Jak as he got a grip underneath his arms and started to drag him off.

"I could…" Jak started objecting, but was cut short by another cough, making Daxter pull harder to get to the opening faster.

"Geez, Jak just shut up and bear with me, will ya'? Ya' weigh a _ton_ by the way, ya' know that?" Daxter jabbered on as he got them closer to the goal, one step at a time.

As soon as they got in underneath the stands, Daxter let go of Jak and found the entire front of his own shirt to be soaked with blood.

After a quick and panicked check, he realised that this wasn't from any wound he'd gotten himself.

Without further ado, Daxter ripped open Jak's shirt in order to get to the wounds.

A bullet had gone through his left shoulder; another two had pierced his upper arm and a fourth one had passed through a muscle on the lower arm.

On the other shoulder Daxter found the holes of another pair of bullets and yet another trio at the upper arm on the same side.

Ripping the shirt's fabric into strips, he tried his best to stop the flow of blood and discovered that another set of bullets had gone through the legs. He used the remaining strips of cloth to tie these wounds up and then he came to think about the blood on his shirt and took another look at Jak's now bare chest.

Just because he had no wounds on the front, it didn't mean he had no wounds on the back.

"Jak, could ya' turn over for a moment?"

When Jak didn't respond, Daxter pulled his friend up to a sitting position, supported his upper body against himself and took a look at his now exposed back.

"Darn, I hate to be right sometimes," he muttered and laid Jak down again to be able to pull his own shirt off.

"Now don't ya' _dare_ die on me, Jak, 'cause it's friggin' chilly here and I'm tearing up my clothes for ya'!" he babbled on with a shivering voice as he started to make new strips of improvised bandages out of his shirt.

He didn't know why, but he felt a little better as long as he kept talking.

It was as if he thought that it was impossible for someone to be seriously hurt if he just talked to them. And right now, he wished hard for Jak not to be as badly injured as he looked to be.

"And here we go," he breathed out as he once more pulled Jak towards himself and got to the job of stopping the blood flow from the two bullet holes he'd found in-between Jak's shoulder blades.

"Stay with me, Jak," he whimpered as he fastened the last strip of cloth with a hard knot. "I can't get out of here without help, ya' know. I just…" The words stuck in his throat as he was about to lay him back down.

Jak was unconscious.

His skin had gotten dangerously pale during the last few minutes and some of the bandages seemed to be leaking already.

Daxter suddenly felt like he was hit with something hard and heavy across his chest and could no longer hold back the tears of doubt that were pressing themselves out of his eyes.

He slowly replaced Jak's heavy body against his own and pressed him closer with his arms around his back.

"Aw, cripes Jak, I can't do this! _I'm not_ _you_! I'm just…" Once again the words just wouldn't come out and Daxter breathed in heavily to steady himself.

"Ya' _can't _die, ya' hear me?" he whispered slowly and closed his eyes as he leant his chin against Jak's shoulder. "Ya' can't. I, I love ya' too much."

Realising the meaning of what he'd just said, Daxter grew silent.

He'd meant every word and he knew it.

The only reason he hadn't said anything earlier was simply because he hadn't realised that it was so until now.

Now he wished he had.

The tumult at the arena had grown quiet by now and Daxter knew he'd better try to get out of there before the marauders came to their senses and started looking for him and Jak in order to get them back inside the cage.

The only trouble with this was that he didn't want to leave Jak where he was, and to get any sort of help he had to do exactly that.

Daxter gently let go of his hold on Jak and laid him down on the ground, checking the bandages once again to see that there wasn't any wound he'd missed to cover up.

Drying his tears with one hand, he slowly got to his feet and took a look outside their temporary hiding.

When he couldn't discover any dangers near by, he threw Jak another look over his shoulder.

"I'll be right back to get ya', ok? Just hang on!" he said before he turned back around and took off, his aim set for the tunnel.

What he should do once he got out in the open he didn't know, but he thought he'd figure that part out when he got there.

For the moment, all he could focus on was getting through the tunnel without being stopped by any of the passing marauders.

As he ran on through the dark tunnel he came to think of the communicators that Dart and his men wore at their belts.

Maybe he could manage to get his hands on one of them and simply tune in on Sig's frequency in order to call for help.

It could work, as long as Sig hadn't changed his number since last time Daxter had dialled it.

With this plan in mind, he pushed himself to run faster and prayed silently that he wasn't too slow to save Jak.


	17. To the rescue

_OK, I know it's been a while... but here's an update! Hope you like it!_

* * *

The first thing that told the wastelanders that they were on the right track was the sound of fighting that was brought to them with a soft breeze in the hot air.

Stepping on the gas, Sig started to feel strangely nervous.

He had a gut feeling telling him he had to hurry, but why, he didn't know.

When they got to the crest of the last dune the first thing that they saw was the chaos of a camp where everybody present fought each other.

The marauders had always been seen as unnecessarily violent and aggressive, but this scenery surprised even the more experienced of the spargans.

Sig gave a silent command to stop the cars and called out for Karidi to get over to him.

"I don't know about you, but personally I just want to get fast in, do what we're here to do and then get fast out. You follow me?" he said as soon as she got close enough to hear him.

Karidi glanced quickly at the camp and as she returned her eyes to Sig, she gave him a quick nod.

"I'm all ears, so what's the plan?"

"Do you know who's in charge of this gang of buffoons?" Sig asked and waited patiently as Karidi gave this some thought.

"Not really, but the man who did the talking last time sure seemed to think he was in charge of something. My guess is that he's important in at least one way. Why?"

"'Cause I'm gonna' track that bastard down and end this mess once and for all. With the metalheads having this craving to go on attacking our walls, I simply think we're better off with one less enemy," Sig explained with a serious expression in his face as he returned to look at the battlefield in front of them. "Do you think you could describe this man to me?"

"Well," Karidi started and snorted at the memory of the man before she continued," he's rather short and skinny to be a marauder, dark blue hair, light skin... and he wears a big dagger at his side. He's sort of hard to miss."

"Good then. I want you to go for the cage that the monk told us about and get everyone out of there. Bring Todd, Lace and Gordiah with you to help with the transport. I will take Garrack, and Tuz to go with me as I try to find that blue haired bastard. Deck will have to stay with the monk and Zerd will be the back up if we need one," Sig said and gave Karidi another look to see if she had gotten it all.

"What will we do if they suddenly reunite against us?" Karidi asked and stared back at him. "We're heavily out-numbered."

Sig gave her a crooked smile and a wink.

"We'll show them that numbers don't matter when dealing with spargans."

His commander smiled approvingly before she turned towards the rest of the men and gave them the orders.

Deck and Zerd were the only ones who didn't quite agree with the plan, feeling a bit left out of the action. The rest of the wastelanders nodded their agreement and smiled among themselves. None of them liked the marauders and felt that now it was time they got to deal out some payback.

With a silent command from Karidi and Sig to move out, they all went to their tasks.

-----------------

Holta got to his feet the very instant he spotted the two cars that were making their way towards the cage.

Judging by the reaction given from the marauders that got in their way, Holta figured this had to be spargans driving.

He got himself to the door of the cage and waited as the first car that stopped outside the bars.

A tall and muscular dark skinned woman jumped out of it and got out a small knife from a pocket in her belt bag as she took the few steps up to the door.

"You're spargans, are you not?" the monk asked as the woman started to work on the lock with her knife. Behind her back her fellow spargans had arrived and saw to it that no marauders got close.

"Name's Karidi," she said and shot him a quick look, "and yes, we are. We're here to get you and the others out. Have any idea where we might find the other guys?" she continued with a cold voice as she got the door open and let him out.

"Yes!" Holta answered eagerly, while Karidi cut off the rope tying his unharmed hand behind his back. "They were taken to the arena, it's in the mountain. You get to it by going through the tunnel opening over there!"

Holta pointed out the direction and Karidi thanked him before she turned him over to one of the men who'd followed her.

"Lace, you and Todd go get this one to safety! I'll go look for Jak and the other one," she said and got back into her own car, waving for the last of her men to hurry over and get back in the car with her.

-------------------

Sig had spotted the blue haired marauder Karidi had described to him.

The man had turned to run as he spotted the spargan king and his men and Sig had gone after him.

But it wasn't too long before the marauder led them to the back of the camp, where the tents and supply shacks were bunched up close to the mountain wall in a mess of small and crooked alleys.

Seeing that the car was too big to get around in, Sig stopped it and got out with the peacemaker charged and ready in his hands and took to running after the fleeing man.

"Hold it right there, marauder, I wanna' talk to you!" Sig called out as he short after got the man cornered up against the mountain wall.

"I ain't sayin' anything!" the marauder replied and spit at his face.

Sig wiped off the saliva with an annoyed gesture, but kept his eyes on the man in front of him.

"Now, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way," he said calmly and patted the buzzing peacemaker. "Your choice."

At first it looked like the marauder was going to give in, his eyes widening as Sig lifted the gun for aiming, but then he started to smile, making Sig wonder just what had made him change his mind.

Just as he was going to ask about it, he heard an unmistakable clicking sound behind his back.

Someone had surprisingly enough managed to sneak up on him from behind and because he'd left his men behind when he got out of his car, Sig was now without protection.

Slowly he lowered his gun and gritted his teeth over his own stupidity.

"No friggin' way that's happening!" someone suddenly called out and Sig caught sight of a blur of red hair, before the distinct sound of a stone hitting soft tissue told him that the man standing behind him was down for the counting.

Without looking to see who'd saved him, Sig raised his gun again.

"Where were we?"

The marauder in front of him shook his shoulders with an apologising look in his face.

"You wanted to know something?" he said with a shivering voice and drops of sweat breaking out over his forehead.

But once again, Sig was interrupted.

This time by the voice of the guy who'd saved him just a minute ago.

"No time for that, Siggy, I need ya' to get right back with me!"

Now Sig got truly annoyed with himself.

The voice sounded awfully familiar and so did the disrespectful addressing, but he simply couldn't place it.

As he turned his head to look over his shoulder at the one speaking, he got even more confused.

He knew he'd never seen the face of this young man before in his life.

And he definitely would have remembered someone with hair being that red.

"Just who do you think you're talking to, chilli?" he asked and saw at the corner of his eyes that his men had finally gotten through to him.

He turned towards them and made them take care of the marauder before he returned his attention to the wired up stranger at his side.

"Now what's the important thing that you needed me to know about? I appreciate your help just now, but I'm sort of busy, so talk fast or move along."

"OK, I'll fill ya' in on the details later, big guy, but right now I need your strength 'cause I sure can't carry him out here for ya'!" the guy answered him in a rushed manner and started to pull at his arm to follow.

"Carry who? Who in the name of the precursors are you?" Sig asked as his confusion grew.

The young man turned his face back towards him with a somewhat annoyed expression and rolled his eyes at him.

"Geez! Do I need to spell it out for ya'? Jak's in there and he's bleeding all over the place so _get your ass moving_!" he yelled out with a voice near breaking.

Sig felt like hitting the guy straight across the face for the insults, but reconsidered it as he started to run alongside him towards the opening of a tunnel in the mountain.

Realising that this young man somehow seemed to know Jak, made Sig trust him a little bit more.

The fact that he'd also told him that Jak was in bad shape made him move even faster.

Just as they arrived at the tunnel entrance, they were forced to stop as Karidi hit the brakes hard and made her car spin to a halt at their very feet.

"Hey, out of the way, dudette!" the redhead called out, seemingly building up his panic even more now that he was hindered to get inside the tunnel.

Karidi ignored him and jumped out of the car, instantly followed by the other soldier in the passenger seat.

"Sir, we couldn't find Jak or the other one there. The monk we did find said we should look in this cave," she reported to Sig.

He nodded at this and taking support with one hand on the hood of the car blocking the entrance, he jumped over to the other side of the car.

"Then you're on the right track. This cherry here said he'd get me to him," he said as he turned back around and simply lifted his self-appointed guide past the obstacle.

The very moment he got back down on the ground, the young man got back to running and Sig followed him as closely as possible, leaving the confused commander to decide for herself whether to follow them or not.

Sig felt sweat starting to run down his face and back as he tried to keep up with the redhead.

He'd always considered himself to be in good shape, but with this guy being too fast for him, Sig was starting to consider doing some more training.

Some minutes later, at the end of the tunnel, they suddenly got out into a vast open area and Sig stopped in his steps, panting as he took in the scenery of the deserted arena.

This was by far the biggest cave he'd ever seen.

The redhead had stopped as well, but only to get down to his knees and as Sig turned to look at what he was doing, the guy crawled into a small opening underneath what seemed to be the stone stands for an audience.

"See, he's right here!" the redhead called out from inside the hole and started backing out, pulling with him an unconscious Jak.

Seeing the state Jak was in, Sig instantly got over to him, bent down and lifted him up into his arms.

Without hesitation he started running back through the tunnel, immediately followed by the man who'd taken him there.

"Thanks chilli pepper, I'll take it from here," Sig huffed out as he kept on running. Feeling the dead weight of his friend pressing on his arms, he tried to focus on running instead of the injuries he'd spotted on Jak as he'd picked him up. Jak needed all the help he could get right now and a lot of green eco if he was going to have a chance of surviving at all.

"Are you kidding me?" the redhead screamed out as he came running up beside him. "I'm _not_ leaving him! You'll just have to drag me along!"

Sig didn't have the air left to argue about this and simply kept running in silence.

As long as Jak had a chance of living, he'd do what ever he had to do in order to keep the chances up. And right now this meant getting him out of this place and into a car with medical equipment.

"Make yourself useful and run ahead," he said to the redhead as he tried to remember what car had the largest supply of the green eco paste. "Tell my men to gather all the medical equipment of the cars and get it ready for use."

He didn't need to say this twice.

The young man simply nodded and picked up speed as he put a growing distance between them.

_Hold on, cherry, I'll get you through this. Just stay with me for a little while longer,_ Sig thought as he spotted the end of the tunnel ahead of him.


	18. Awakening

"Is he going to be all right?"

Karidi's voice was filled with concern and surprised at this display of emotion, Sig turned his head to look at her.

As soon as he'd come out from the tunnel Sig had been helped to get Jak into a waiting car and his wounds was treated as good as possible even before the driver had started to get them away from the battle scene.

They had managed to get out of the camp without further trouble, mostly thanks to the marauders being busy beating up them selves instead of the intruding wastelanders.

As they left though, some of the still fighting marauders turned as they realised that Sig and his soldiers had taken not only the prisoners with them, but also one of their own men.

Realising this turn of events they had made a move to stop the spargans from getting away, but luckily for the fleeing party, this reaction came too late to be of any use.

Now, back inside Spargus' gates, Sig was keeping a watchful eye over the monks taking care of his still unconscious friend. Joining him were Karidi and the red haired guy who'd helped him find Jak.

At the moment the skinny and pale figure of this stranger was placed on a stool about two steps away from the foot of Jak's bed, the closest distance he was allowed to be within for the monks to be able to work freely around their patient.

Since he'd been without a shirt when they'd found him, Sig had seen to that he'd gotten one to borrow as a sign of gratitude that he'd wasted his own clothing on trying to stop Jak's bleeding.

Sig still didn't know who this man was, and he'd been allowed inside the gates simply because he refused to be parted from Jak and Sig didn't want to waste any time in arguing the matter while Jak's life hung on a thread.

The spargan king put on a weak smile in a try to lessen the anxiety of his commander.

"If there's one thing I've learned about this cherry here, it's that he can do just about anything if he puts his mind to it," Sig answered his commander's question, but he couldn't hide the strain in his voice, nor could he disguise the glimmer of worry in his eye.

"But you don't believe he wants to?" Karidi asked, hoping to be wrong in her assumption but more or less knowing this was the deal.

Sig sighed loudly and slowly shook his head.

"I don't know. I can only hope he does."

This statement made the stranger of the party turn his head, and for the first time since they got into the room, he averted his attention from the wounded man in the hospital bed.

"Why tha' hell do ya' think he wouldn't fight this? He fights _everything_!"

Sig bit down hard around the words that he wanted to barge out at the young man.

This guy reminded him annoyingly much of someone he knew, but he couldn't figure it out, and this made him even more irritated, to the point that he'd really taken on not liking him. And Sig usually didn't feel like that about people he knew nothing about.

He took a deep breath before he said anything.

"Now, tell me chilli pepper, who are you to know this about him?" he asked with forced calmness in his voice. "You still haven't told me anything about yourself, and frankly your behaviour alone would have kicked you right out of this city in an instant, if it hadn't been for the fact that you're the one who got him out of there."

Sig was staring the young man down and studied his face for any lead that he hadn't seen, that could place him in his memory and tell him why the guy was so strangely familiar.

The redhead looked back at Jak for a moment, as if checking that nothing had happened while he'd been looking the other way, and then he returned his attention to Sig.

"Ok, listen big guy, I'm sorry for not saying anything sooner, but I guess I was just caught up in the moment and all that. 'Sides, I'm kinda' new to all this myself, so I'm on autopilot when it comes to assuming that everybody I recognize knows who I am," the redhead blurted out at a high speed, revealing that he was getting slightly nervous.

Sig nodded silently for him to move on.

"Well, ya' see, the deal is that you _do_ know me, just not my face as it is…"

This made Karidi lift an eyebrow in disbelief and Sig was ready to match the gesture, but none of them interrupted him.

"I mean, I know it sounds crazy, but stay with me! I know Jak from when we were kids, and for as long as I can remember I've always been with him, apart from a few mishaps that is…"

Suddenly Sig realised where he'd heard the voice before, putting together the facts he'd just been given with the way the fellow acted around him. But as this realisation dawned upon him, he got even more confused when looking at the young man in front of him.

"Wait a minute now, how could you possibly…" he started to ask, but was interrupted before he had a chance to pronounce the question to its fullest.

"Bingo Siggy! You're pretty fast, all though I thought you would've figured it out way sooner."

"Who…?" Karidi asked, her puzzled face telling all about the confusion she felt.

"Oh, sorry, I believe we haven't met before. Name's Daxter, missy. What's yours?"

"Wait, aren't you supposed to be a _rat_ or something?" Karidi immediately bursted out as the pieces of information started to click together in her mind.

"Or something…" the redhead mumbled with some annoyance in his voice.

"I'm going to ask you the same thing chilli, and you better give a reasonable explanation for this," Sig said slowly, still doubting the truth of it all.

Apart from the fact that Jak had clearly thought his friend to have been killed, this was in need for an explanation of how an ottsel all of a sudden could turn out to be a man.

"Well, ya' see, I sort of happened to fall into a pool of dark eco some years back and by some odd twist of fate I turned into that orange furry thing and was spit out, instead of being killed," the young man answered, almost stumbling on his words in his eagerness to get the entire story told. "And believe it or not, I sort of fell into a pool of the stuff again some week or so ago when Jakkie boy here got pushed in the other direction. It turns out this actually granted me to have my old self back again."

The guy who claimed to be the former ottsel looked up at the king of Spargus, eyes praying for him to believe his pretty much unbelievable story.

"Come on, big guy, I know I've told ya' about me not always being small and fuzzy, right? I wasn't braggin' or anything back then, I was serious, and I still am. Heck, why d'ya think I was able to talk to begin with?"

Sig didn't say anything, but kept both his prosthetic and natural eye at him, face showing a blank expression of pure confusion.

Karidi, on the other hand, had trouble believing anything that he was saying and in contrast to Sig, she wasn't even ready to try believing it either.

"Oh, come on! Do you really think we'll believe that all this is true just because you helped Jak? For all we know you could just be a very clever spy for the marauders. Very unlikely, I admit that, but still more believable than what you're trying to convince us is true!" she nearly yelled out and took a step closer to him, but was hindered by Sig's outstretched hand.

"Calm down, commander," he told her in a stern voice and then turned back to the redhead. "I'm not saying I believe you completely, but I'll let you stay for now, until Jak wakes up and can confirm or deny this information as being true. Is that all right with you, chilli?"

"Can't blame you for hesitating, pal. I mean, I'm still having trouble believing this myself, as I told ya'. But, since I know I'm right, I can happily agree to your terms."

"Excuse me, sir."

One of the monks who'd been caring for Jak's wounds had left his patient's side for the moment and was now standing beside the redhead.

"What is it?" Sig asked, worry getting back in his voice as he thought of a million reasons, all of them bad, for why this monk wanted his attention.

"It's the loss of blood, sir. His wounds are too deep and he's lost too much blood to heal up properly. We've retrieved the bullets that were stuck inside and sewn together what we could of the wounds, but I fear there is nothing we can do for him."

Before Sig or Karidi had a chance to respond to this, the redhead grabbed the monk by his shoulders and started to shake him.

"Oh no you don't! Don't give up now! I know you can do better than this! Ya' gotta' have something left of those white eco crystals ya' used to have before, right?"

The monk suddenly looked like he'd realised something new and got away from him with a mild pull at his hands.

"As a matter of fact, I do have one of those with me, but what good can it do? Seeing as green eco doesn't have any effect on him…"

"He friggin' _absorbs_ the stuff! Don't stand there talkin', just get it over to him, trust me!"

Sig and Karidi both looked at the raging redhead in silent wonder as he got himself to the bedside of his wounded friend while the monk got the crystal from his brought pack of medical supplies.

"It's not a big crystal and really, I don't know how this could help him," the monk said and handed the precious piece of material over to the worried young man, "…but at least it cannot harm him."

"You'll see, he'll make it work, I know it. He wouldn't dare to die on me now," the redhead mumbled in a low voice as he carefully put the crystal upon Jak's chest.

At first nothing happened, but just as Sig was about to step forward and take the object away, it started to glow.

The dim light suddenly grew intense for a moment, before the former white crystal somehow turned clear as glass.

Jak took a deep breath as blue light travelled from the crystal and across his skin, giving it a pale blue glow.

In front of the surprised faces of Sig, Karidi and the monks present, Jak's wounds started to close themselves as he slowly breathed easier.

The redhead, who was closest to him, smiled with relief.

"That was a close one, buddy. Don't do that stuff again, ya' hear?" he murmured slowly and gently touched his friend's cheek with a trembling hand.

Jak slowly opened his eyes.

He was feeling strangely good and in pain at the same time.

As the memory came back to him with another blink of his eyelids, he remembered being shot and then pulled away to safety by someone.

He heard a voice and turned his head to look at the face of the person speaking, smiling softly as he saw him.

"Hey, Dax, cheer up, will ya'?" he mumbled, gratitude and deep care glowing in his eyes as he looked at his teary eyed friend.

"You dumb-ass! I told ya' to run!" Daxter sniffled as he dried his eyes with the back of his hand.

Jak only smiled silently at this, the look in his eyes telling Daxter more than any words could ever do.

Sig looked from one of them to the other in vague disbelief as the previous doubts were leaving his mind.

He caught himself gaping at the scenery and forced his mouth shut.

Karidi, who was still standing beside Sig, didn't say or do anything.

She simply looked at Jak and the young man in silence, trying to grasp what she had just learned.

"So it really _is_ you then, chilli pepper?" Sig said after a long pause of silence and Daxter turned his face towards him, nodding slowly.

"Yep. One hundred percent," he said.

At the sound of Sig's voice, Jak tried to turn his eyes towards the spargan king, not yet fully able to move anything else without causing pain.

Noticing Jak's try to see him, Sig stepped closer to stand beside Daxter, putting a slightly trembling, but yet protective hand on the redhead's shoulder as he caught Jak's eyes.

"You should thank your devoted friend for being alive, cherry!" he said, a hint of growing pride over his young friend in his voice as he said it. "Without him we probably wouldn't have found you in time and no one would have thought of the eco crystal that saved your life right now."

Jak nodded silently as he realised that the cause for his weird feeling of wellbeing in the midst of all the stinging pains he could sense all over, was a crystal of white eco still laying on his chest.

"Yeah, he's the best there is," he said smiling, meaning every word as he looked at Daxter.

Karidi started to move towards the bed in order to show her gratefulness to Jak's miraculous survival, but stopped mid step when she saw the smile on his lips.

She'd never seen him smile before, not like this.

And the one who'd brought the smile upon his face was Daxter; this odd looking young man who'd seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

Forcing a smile onto her own lips she took the few steps that remained between her and the others around the bed.

"It's good to see you breathing again goldilocks," she said cheerfully as Jak turned his eyes towards her when she stopped by his bedside. "You almost had me worried for a while."

"Really?" Jak replied, sounding a bit amused at the thought of her showing any hesitation regarding anything at all. "Sorry for that, Karidi."

The commander shook her head slowly, smile still in her face.

"Don't be, Jak. I'm the one who should apologise to you for not turning back when you fell off."

Daxter gave the dark woman an examining look at these words, but as no explanation was given, he didn't think it necessary to ask for one either.

Especially not after seeing the look in her eyes when she looked down at his friend.

She did have a good taste, he had to give her that.


	19. The setting of a trap

Jak was recovering fast as soon as the light eco had gotten out in his system and getting him accessible to the use of green eco again.

Daxter hardly ever left his side during the three days he had to stay in bed.

Whenever anyone came into the room, they found him already there, talking in a cheerful voice, laughing and making up stories that actually even made Jak laugh every once in a while.

At the fourth day after the 'rescue', Karidi was interrupted by a knock on her door while she was cleaning one of her guns.

She turned around to see who it was and couldn't help but smiling at the young warrior standing there, leaning carelessly against the handle of the open door.

"Well I'll be damned, back from the dead now, are ya'?" she said mockingly and put away the gun as she got up on her feet to greet him properly.

"Just wanted to stop by and tell you I'm walking again," Jak said and took her outstretched hand in his, slightly smiling back at her.

"Good. Any idea when you're getting back on the missions again?" Karidi replied, smile widening. "I could need ya' back in the team, ya' know."

Jak shrugged at this and started to move away.

"My guess is that Sig wants to keep me locked up in the city for another week or so…"

"A week?" Daxter's voice interrupted him and soon the redhead appeared in the doorway. "Try the rest of your life! And I'm with him! I mean, geez, look at what happens when I let you out of my sight!"

He smiled widely and patted Jak's shoulder in a gesture that to Karidi for some reason seemed to be more of a proclamation of ownership than a friendly concern.

"I was just wondering where you'd taken off to," Karidi said venomously in a whisper to herself before she raised her voice to finish the conversation.

"He's just trying to make sure you won't die while still recovering," she said, referring to the king, and picked up her gun again.

Jak simply shook his head with an excusing smile and walked away, Daxter following him not more than a step behind his back.

"So, where're ya' heading?" Daxter asked as soon as they'd left Karidi's doorway.

"Sig," Jak said shortly, figuring it would be enough of an explanation.

Daxter felt like exploding with impatience as he didn't get to know anything else, but he remained silent about it, not feeling like making Jak annoyed by asking once more.

Instead, he decided to talk about whatever came to his mind.

"So, what's up with you and that foxy lady back there?"

"What?"

Jak stopped in his steps and turned to look at him with a completely puzzled expression in his face that almost made Daxter laugh out loud.

"Don't tell me ya' haven't noticed how she looks ya' up and down every time you're close? Seriously, you're as blind as a lurker bat if you can't pick that up!" Daxter pointed out with a widening grin and patted Jak's shoulder guard in an acted gesture of comfort. In his mind though, he made a victory sign, glad that Jak apparently didn't have any interest in the woman mentioned.

Jak pushed the hand away and shook his head at him.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Dax. Karidi's simply one of the commanders I've been working with. She's good at her job and you can't make me think differently."

He started walking again, considering the conversation finished and heading on towards the palace.

"Geez, man, I'm serious! I'm just trying to feed ya' some information here!" Daxter called out a bit mockingly as he ran after him.

Jak chuckled softly at this and put his arm around Daxter's shoulders as soon as he'd caught up with him.

"Dax, trust me, if I'll ever _want_ that sort of information, I'll ask for it."

Daxter looked at him with a dubious face as they entered the palace.

"Really now?"

Jak didn't answer him on this. Instead he let go of his shoulders with a gentle squeeze and got into the wooden elevator that would take them to the throne room above.

Daxter sighed dramatically and got on the elevator as well, before Jak pulled the lever to activate it.

Sig was waiting for them at the steps up to the throne podium.

"Hello there, cherries," he said as he spotted them. " It's good to see you're back on your feet again," he said as he turned to Jak. "Now tell me, how did it go over at Haven? I sort of didn't have a chance to ask you earlier. Did you get the coms to Torn and Samos?"

Jak pulled a face at the remembrance and cleared his voice.

"Yeah, I informed them of the situation and gave them the coms and your instructions. Why? Haven't they tried to contact you yet?"

Sig shook his head slowly.

"Something seems to be amiss with the entire communication system lately. At first our coms wouldn't contact any non- spargan com- device, that you know. But during these past five days, since you went over to Haven, we've been starting to have trouble reaching each other as well, even on the car radios," he explained with a troubled voice and started to pace back and forth across the steps of the podium.

"Luckily we haven't been attacked by any metalheads during this time, but my guess is that it's only a matter of time until they hit us again," he continued, sounding tired and more pessimistic than usual.

Jak caught himself remembering a stray thought he'd had right before he'd turned dark against the metalhead outside of Haven City's gates.

"Sig, I think someone or something's controlling them again."

The battered wasteland warrior looked up from his stare at the floor and stopped in his pacing.

"What makes you think that?"

Jak explained the feeling he'd gotten as he'd been putting the facts together back at Haven.

"Metalheads don't plan things or track their prey selectively like that. At least I don't know of any metalheads having acted that way unless they've been under some sort of other influences," he summed it up as he finished.

Sig was silently regarding the things he'd been told and got to the same conclusion as Jak had.

"I must say that seems to be the thing. Problem is we don't know _who,_ or _what_ that's giving this influence, as you put it."

"Wait a minute here, time-out. Am I the only one thinking this is totally surreal?" Daxter suddenly interrupted him and looked from Jak to Sig with a disbelieving face.

"I mean, first off, Errol was the one who did this the last time. Him and those icky dark makers. That was about, what? Four, five years ago? And they were all demolished by yours truly and wonderboy here, so how in all the universes of the precursors could this be happening again?"

Jak shrugged apologetically and Sig only lifted an eyebrow at this comment.

"Well, chilli pepper, we don't know yet, but it's happening. The leads we've gotten so far all points in that direction."

"And the communication system then? What's that got to do with any of this?" Daxter went on, trying to get some explanations as he had the chance.

"We don't know yet," Sig replied with a heavy sigh. "Any ideas for this yourself, chilli?

Daxter shut his mouth instantly and put himself behind Jak's back, feeling a strange need to duck for cover as he looked at Sig.

Sig chuckled at his reaction and sat down on the steps, inviting Jak and Daxter to join him with a move of his hand over the empty space on his sides.

"What about the marauders?" Daxter asked as he sat himself down beside Jak. "I mean, they're way too stupid to be able to do anything like that, but do you think they've got the same problems as us?"

This made both of the other men raise their eyebrows.

"I haven't thought of that, but I think I might actually ask about it," Sig said thoughtfully. "We've still got that blue haired man behind bars over by the arena."

Daxter snorted loudly at the mentioning of the captured marauder.

"Dart's a looser, but I have to admit he might actually be able to say something of use. He's definitely smarter than the rest of the lot."

"Dart?" Sig asked curiously.

"Yeah, the guy you've caught was called that by his men," Daxter explained further." I'm guessing he's some sort of leader or commander. They've got this other hot shot bossing them all around, that part I realised at the arena, but Dart's probably second to that guy. At least he acts like he is."

Sig nodded at this.

"Yes, he likes to boast about his rank to the guards, or so I've heard," he said slowly. "I still haven't paid him the visit I planned, so I think I better do this right away."

He got up on his feet again and turned towards Jak and Daxter with a crooked smile on his lips.

"Care to join me, cherries?"

"Never thought you'd ask," Daxter answered for them both, a wide grin being exchanged between him and Jak as they followed Sig to the elevator.

-----------------------

Dart looked up from his hands as he heard someone entering the hallway leading past his cell.

When he saw the large shape of the spargan king coming closer, he spit on the dusty stone floor and cursed under his breath.

He was starting to get really irritated with this entire situation.

Especially since he'd thought his men would've at least _tried_ to get him out by now.

Someone was with the king.

Dart got up on his feet and leaned forward against the bars to get a better look, curious whether it was some ordinary guards or simply an executioner.

As far as he knew, he could be heading for either the arena or a fast death.

When he spotted the green tinted blonde hair of one of the warriors following the king, he swallowed down a surprised gasp and backed away from the bars as the small group of men got closer.

How could that man possibly still be alive?

Dart knew that Jak had been seriously injured at the chaos that had broken out at the arena before the wastelanders had crashed the camp. He'd seen the bullets hit him.

While the marauder tried to figure this riddle out, the two guards present backed away to leave more room for the visitors as they stopped outside his cell.

"Well then, I guess you know who we are," Sig said slowly and Dart turned to face them, keeping his face calm so as to not show them the present confusion he felt.

"I guess," he answered and sat himself down at the floor, seemingly not caring the least about them being there.

"I've been meaning to talk to you earlier, but I simply had to take care of some other matters before I did," Sig continued, not shifting his expression the least at Dart's behaviour. "We both know we aren't going to get friendly anytime soon, but I'll jump to the most important questions right away, and I expect an honest answer. Our city has been having problems with an increasing attack rate by metalheads lately and now we seem to be having some difficulties with our communication system as well."

"So?" Dart asked, curiosity forcing him to ask for more information as Sig paused for a moment.

"Apart from the fact that you seem to have taken advantage of the damage caused by the metalheads, I would like to know whether or not you've experienced a similar increase of trouble of this kind on your side."

Dart lifted an eyebrow as he tried to think up anything he could say that could help his situation.

"Not…" he thought for a bit before he continued. " Not really. No. The metalheads haven't bothered us all too much lately, but that's about all I can say about that. Our coms work perfectly as always."

The other two standing behind the king made a face of disbelief at this, but Sig still kept his face set in a cold expression as he thought through the information.

"And may I ask why you and your men keep on attacking Spargus?"

The question wasn't unexpected, but Dart still had some trouble finding a decent answer right away.

He looked up at the imposing former wasteland warrior and suddenly got the feeling he was going to die painfully if he ever did upset this man.

Another look at the two men behind the king made Dart realise that he had probably upset the man enough already.

He pushed back the insults that came rushing to his mind and tried to find a way to answer honestly without telling anything too valuable.

"Aww, don't bother about that piece of trash! He'll just lie and try to stab our backs as soon as he gets the chance!" the redhead suddenly said in an annoyed voice.

Dart felt like he should at least try to respond to this.

"If I can't say anything without you assuming it's a lie, then why should I even bother to say anything at all?" he said slowly and to his joy and surprise, Jak made a correcting move towards his friend, apparently underlining what he'd just said.

"I'm ready to listen to whatever you have to say about this matter," Sig said, drawing Darts attention back to him.

"Well, then," Dart mumbled. "What can I say, I'm not the one making up the orders; I just hand them out on the field. Personally, I'm just doing what I like. I'm good at that stuff, ya' know. And I like the excitement."

He said this in a leisured manner, leaning back against the wall behind his back and almost giving the impression he enjoyed the conversation.

"Besides, since we're not welcome and don't find it a good thing to be living in the city of Haven, we're cast out here in the desert as well as you and your lot. But you have your precious rules and traditions of how to be accepted, rules we apparently don't have the capacity or the want to live up to." He paused and shot a look at the listeners on the other side of the bars.

Noticing he had their full attention, he continued.

"I'm not saying this is a good reason to go fighting you all, but we do have our disagreements, right? This is a neat spot, if you're getting me. All we want is to be able to call this spot ours as well. Nothing else."

"If that's true, you do know there are other ways to get in here than by simply forcing yourselves upon our walls?" the king said, slightly shifting his stand.

"Like what? Fighting in the arena? Make a deal about some sort of peace? Doesn't sound so good to me," Dart objected and shook his head. "Nah, I'd rather wait for the metalheads to finish you all off before we take over the place than to make a deal with a spargan."

Suddenly Jak took a step forward, his eyes glowing darkly in the gloomy light with something close to anger, mixed with disgust.

Dart had to bite his tongue in order not to let out a frightened yelp as the warrior set his eyes on him.

"You're saying you don't know about the metalheads acting strangely, that you haven't noticed they all seem to have disappeared from the desert lands, save a few strays?" Jak said with a voice filled of kept back rage. "Those metalheads you had me fight back at your arena, they were the only ones you'd seen in a long time, weren't they? Still your entire mountain was infested with the stench of dark eco. Don't tell me you don't find it odd that metalheads aren't swarming your camp with a dark eco well right beneath your feet!"

Dart was taken aback by the force in his voice and even more surprised at the information thrown at him.

"What? How, how do you know about that?" he asked before he could stop himself.

Both the redhead and the king had turned towards Jak with just as surprised expressions in their faces as Dart.

"They have a dark eco well beneath that mountain?" Sig asked slowly.

"The metalheads moved for it before they attacked me. Turning down their heads and sniffing. I could feel it as well when… after I'd taken care of them," Jak explained, pausing only shortly at the mentioning of his own transformation. "The point is, you know this cave should attract the metalheads, you probably only picked the spot after they left, am I right?"

By having admitted his awareness of the eco well the way he did earlier, Dart found no reason to not agree with this.

"Well, yes. We did find it a bit odd to begin with, but we haven't really thought about it," he confessed and looked down on the floor to avoid the piercing look of Jak's blue eyes.

"Well then, I guess we've gotten the answer we came for," Sig said and with a hand upon Jak's shoulder he made the younger man back away from the bars.

"Yeah, ya' don't have a clue and ya' can't help us," the redhead said and turned to leave as well when the king and Jak did so.

As the guards moved back to their places by the bars, Dart suddenly saw his chances of getting out of the imprisonment fade away and decided to take a chance.

Rising to his feet he grabbed the bars and yelled out for the trio to stop.

"I never said I didn't have a clue about what's happening, I just said that the lot of us haven't thought about it."

Sig turned around and looked at him with a curious expression in his face, making the other two stop by the move of his hand.

"You mean to tell us _you _know something then?"

Dart smiled to himself as his bait was swallowed.

"All I know is that the boss said something about the catacombs of this city being some sort of sacred place for the precursors. I don't know if that's got anything to do with it all, but it could be the reason why the metalheads are focusing on Spargus and not any other place," he said and leaned heavily at the bars. "After all, the precursors somehow seem to be involved in everything big that ever happens in this world."

Sig thought about this in silence for a moment, before he turned back around, motioning for the others to start moving again.

"Wait, ya' don't mean to say you're going to buy that? Why tha' heck would he be helping us now?" the redhead objected, but was silenced by Jak, giving him a warning look.

Dart had to admit that this odd youngster had some nerve to go against his leader like that.

"I'll give this a thought and return to you later with some more questions," Sig said. At those words he started to move again and the others were soon to do the same.

The marauder followed the men with watchful eyes and hearing the metaphorical clicking of the wheels of his plan set in motion, he allowed himself to smile wider.

He'd taken a wild shot, and it had worked.

As soon as he got out, he would have to make some explanations to the masters, but all in all he thought they'd appreciate his scheme once it was explained.

After all, if everything went as he thought it would, he'd be giving them not only their desired treasures served on a dish, but their most hated enemy as well.


	20. Past attatchment

_Comment: My appologies for the long wait, I've been sort of ill. But, I'm back from the hospital, and ready for action again! With some luck I'll manage to post the remaining chapters of this major story before Christmas. ;)_

* * *

"Don't tell me ya' actually bought that?" Daxter asked in an accusing manner as soon as they'd gotten out of the dungeon and back out into the open air.

Jak didn't even try to comment on this; he simply sighed and made an almost invisible movement with his shoulders.

Sig on the other hand didn't feel like letting this pass.

"Now, listen chilli pepper," he said without slowing his steps, "I don't see any reason as to why we shouldn't check this out. Personally I haven't heard of anything such as catacombs beneath Spargus, and I've been here for quite some time now…"

"Ya' see? Nothing to bother about then…" Daxter said eagerly, but was cut short before he could continue.

"That gives us even more reason to actually try to see whether these catacombs really do exist or not," Sig said and gave him a stern look over the shoulder. "And as much as I appreciate your concern and eagerness, chilli, you better not keep on questioning my decisions in the future, at least not in front of the enemy."

Daxter closed his mouth around the things he'd wanted to say and managed to look a bit ashamed at this, ears drooping a bit and eyes turning towards his feet as he walked on.

"Sorry 'bout that…" he mumbled apologizingly.

"No harm done," Sig said in a chuckle as he saw this. "Just don't do it again if you can help it, ok?"

While they walked back towards the palace, Jak silently put one arm around Daxter's shoulders, as if to say that everything was all right and that he hadn't done anything wrong.

The sudden gesture of comfort made Daxter feel warm all throughout his body, sending tiny signals of joy like electrical impulses over his skin.

He could feel the heat in his cheeks before he understood that he was blushing.

"He-hey, buddy, I can walk on my own, ya' know," Daxter stuttered embarrassed and weakly tried to push his friend away.

Jak let go of him with a shrug and a soft smile on his lips, telling Daxter he'd noticed the red on his cheeks.

About halfway to the palace, the three men suddenly spotted Karidi who came running towards them.

"Something's up at the gates, sir!" she yelled out as soon as she got within hearing distance. "I thought I'd get you as soon as possible," she continued as she slowed down and turned to walk in the same direction as her king.

"What is it about then, more precisely?" Sig asked, worried and a bit confused by the way his commander was acting.

"Metalheads, sir. We've spotted a group of about twenty or more grunts some way west from here, moving towards us. It seems like they're chasing someone, sir."

This made Sig lengthen his steps as he turned down a new alley leading towards the western wall instead of the palace.

All around them the news was spreading and as the ones able to fight ran towards the wall to take their positions, others saw to that the ones not fighting got somewhere safer.

As they got to the wall, Jak made a move to get to the cars, when Sig suddenly stopped and turned to look at him.

"Not today cherry," he said with a harsh voice. "You're not getting out there while you still have wounds healing. You stand _behind_ the wall this time."

Jak looked at him as if he'd suddenly lost his mind.

Daxter let his eyes go from Jak to Sig with growing uneasiness.

"But…" Jak started, but Sig simply turned around to climb the stairs up to the top of the wall.

"No buts, cherry. You stay."

Karidi shrugged apologetically as she moved passed Jak towards the car park at the gate.

"Sorry goldilocks. I'll try to leave ya' all the big ones the next time, all right?" she called out and winked at him before she got out of sight behind one of the cars.

Jak didn't say anything, but stared blankly in front of himself, not quite believing he'd heard it all right.

For the first time since he'd put his foot in Spargus, he wasn't allowed to fight.

Frustration was an understatement of what this made him feel.

Daxter slowly reached up and patted his shoulder guard gently.

"Aww, come on, big guy. Look at it this way; at least now we _know_ you'll survive _this_ day," he said in a try to ease the tension created by the silence that had risen after Sig's orders.

Jak snorted at this and shook off the hand as he turned around and started walking back into the city. Daxter was quick to follow him, but did so a few steps behind as he didn't want to press his luck by getting too close to his upset friend.

After a few turns Daxter realised they were standing in front of their apartment.

"So, you're not even going to be by the wall then?" Daxter asked, feeling he had to say something after having been quiet for so long.

"Just wait here, Dax. I'll be right back out," Jak said, ignoring the question and walked up the steps leading to the door and got inside before Daxter had a chance to say anything else.

He got back out within a minute, carrying with him two modguns and a few packs of ammunition. He threw one of the guns towards Daxter, who only barely managed to grab it before it hit the ground.

"He-hey, what're ya' doing?"

Jak gave him some of the ammunition packs and winked at him as he loaded his own gun and added a yellow mod, making the gun morph into a model more suited for long distance hunting than eye-to-eye battle.

"We can't be of any help back behind the wall if we don't have weapons, right?" he said and began to run back towards the wall as soon as Daxter had managed to load his own gun.

Daxter had to smile to himself as he ran after Jak.

It was sort of funny to see him turning his restraining orders into something more suitable for him.

When they got to the wall, they could clearly hear the fight on the other side as metalheads cried out in loud shrilling voices from the midst of roaring car engines and the hammering pulses of guns being fired.

"Big one, nine o'clock!" someone suddenly yelled out and a loud bang against the closest gate sent a vibration through the foundation of the wall, unsettling the warriors upon it for a moment.

"Geez, so this is how it's been lately, then?" Daxter asked in a shivering voice. He didn't like metalheads, and he definitely didn't like the big ones from the open deserts of the wasteland.

The fact that he hadn't held a gun in his hands since ottseldom didn't help his nervousness either.

Jak just nodded at his comment and ran to join the few men standing by at the gate, ready to fight in case the gate would give in.

Daxter hesitated for a moment before he followed, arriving just in time for the second hit by the enormous metalhead crashing into the gate from the other side, sending parts of brick and stone falling from the wall.

"Any guess at how things are going out there?" Daxter asked as soon as the ground stopped shaking beneath them.

"By the sounds of it I'd say we're kicking ass!" the man closest to him answered and the comment was greeted with a cheer amongst the other wastelanders gathered.

Suddenly they could hear a missile being fired, and soon after it, the unmistakable sound of a wasteland metalhead being hit.

A vibration went though the ground as it fell and a loud cheer rose from all warriors on the wall.

"Open the gate! Enemies taken out!" someone called down from the wall and some of the warriors at the car park ran to the task.

Daxter felt good at not having had to join the dangerous part of the fight that had been, but as he turned towards Jak, he could see a vague touch of disappointment in his eyes as he put away the gun.

"Hey, buddy, whadda'ya' say we go to the bar and get ourselves some memory blasters, huh?" he said and made a short nod in the direction of the inner city.

Jak first looked at him in a state of slight confusion before he understood what he meant and shook his head.

"No, we should get to the palace and meet up with Sig. We still have to take a look at that catacomb mystery."

"Aww, buggers!" Daxter grumbled and kicked disappointedly at an invisible stone on the ground, but he quickly followed Jak as he slowly started to walk towards the palace.

Behind them they could hear the warriors returning from the fight outside the wall, but none of them turned around to look; Jak because he didn't want to be reminded that he hadn't been part of the team, and Daxter because he simply wasn't interested.

But they hadn't gotten far before Jak could hear a familiar voice call out to him from the ruckus behind his back.

"Well blow me up, ain't this a pleasant surprise? Jak!"

Jak turned around as he heard his name, only realising who the voice belonged to as he spotted the man coming towards him from the crowd.

The thin blond hair was drawn back in a short pony tail as usual, the dark eyes surrounded by not only the regular soot, but desert dust as well.

While Jak watched him, he lighted a cigar and inhaled deeply, only letting out the cloud of smoke as he was about five steps away from Jak.

Daxter had stopped a few steps away as he noticed that Jak wasn't with him. As he recognised the other man walking up to Jak, he decided he'd stay out of sight for as long as possible, not wanting to speak to the man unless it was truly necessary.

"Hello, pretty-boy!" Jinx said, smiling in his ordinary witty manner and reached out his hand in a greeting as he got closer.

Jak didn't take it.

Instead he stared at the explosives expert and waited for an explanation as to why he was there.

Jinx wrinkled his forehead at the hostile expression in Jak's face and put his outstretched hand in his pocket instead.

"Lovely to meet you too," he said with a short a laugh. "Someone's woke up on the wrong side I see. So, where've you been the last couple of years, 'ey?" he tried and puffed a bit nervously at his cigar.

Jak only kept on staring.

Daxter smiled as he watched from behind a corner.

He knew Jak would win this, being somewhat of an expert at the silent treatment.

After all, he'd spent about half his life as a mute.

Jinx finally realised he wasn't getting anywhere with his questions and sighed as he moved one hand over his head, smoothening the already flat hair.

"I'm guessing ya' wanna' know why I'm here, right?"

Jak nodded slowly.

"Look, I'm just the driver, all right? Someone had to come with her and I was sort of the only one available, so don't go blowing your fuses just because of me. I'm here because I'm getting paid, that's all."

Jak raised his eyebrows at the information.

"Who's with you then?" he asked and tried to have a look over the other man's shoulder to find this out himself.

But before Jinx could answer, the woman in question called out his name from somewhere to his left.

"Jak!"

Jak barely had the time to turn around before Keira threw herself at him. Her arms flew around his neck within an instant in a tight embrace that just about took the breath out of him, reminding him of a bruise still tender after a wound that had healed up only the day before.

"It's really you!" she mumbled with her mouth pressed against the skin of his neck.

Jak suddenly felt an urge to run away and hide.

He just couldn't figure out what to say or what to do with his hands, not wanting to return the hug and in the same time knowing that he'd longed for this sort of touch ever since he'd left Haven two years ago.

Having felt it once, he wanted it again, the feeling being just as addictive as the calm he felt when being affected by light eco.

Only he didn't want it to be Keira in his arms.

"Dad told me you'd been in Haven some days ago," Keira continued, mouth still at his neck and unaware of his agony. "I just couldn't believe…" she sighed heavily and paused for a moment as she drew in the smell of his skin. "I've missed you."

Jinx smiled widely at the scene and Jak felt like hitting him with something hard for not warning him sooner.

Some steps behind Jinx, Jak's eyes caught Karidi's, as the commander stood staring in confusion at him and Keira.

He came to think about what Daxter had said earlier and suddenly he realised that maybe Daxter hadn't been so far off in his interpretation of the dark woman.

_Why me?_ he thought tiredly and gently put his hands on Keiras shoulders, carefully pushing her away from himself.

"Look, Keira, I…" he started to say, but she put a finger upon his lips before he got to say what he had in mind.

"Shh. I don't want to force you to tell me anything about why you left or where you've been, ok? I'm just glad you're alive."

For a moment it was as if a shadow crossed her face and she looked into his eyes with sincere concern.

"I, I heard about Dax," she said in a low voice.

Remembering what he'd said as he'd left Haven after leaving the coms, Jak felt he had to say something.

"Keira, about that, it turns out he's a bit tougher than we all thought."

Keira looked confused at these words and as Jak tried to find a way to explain what he meant, Daxter decided to come up to them, thinking he'd been hiding from Keira long enough to make his entrance just as great as he wished it to be.

"Well look at what the sand brought in!" he called out as he stepped out from his hiding spot. "Jak, don't ya' dare keep all the goodies to yourself like that!"

Keira's eyes shifted in expression from confusion, to vague recognition and finally into growing joy as she looked at the young redheaded man coming towards her.

"Daxter!" she managed to yell out as she understood who she was actually seeing.

"Yeah baby! One hundred percent! Have ya' missed me?" Daxter replied with a wide grin, enjoying the attention given.

Keira ran up to Daxter and threw her arms around him as her face got covered in tears of joy at seeing her friend alive.

Jinx lifted an eyebrow in confusion and looked at Jak for an explanation, but Jak only shook his shoulders slightly and gave him an amused smile. He didn't expect for Jinx to remember Daxter's name, and since the man only knew of him in the state of a small orange animal, Jak was ready to excuse him for this lack of knowledge.

"But, _how_? I mean, it's _you_, really you, I…" Keira stuttered, trying to make sense of all the things she couldn't grasp concerning this meeting.

Daxter gave her a hearty squeeze, truly enjoying the fact that he now was just about as tall as she was, meaning all her good body parts actually pressed up against the right places while he was hugging her.

"Well, toots, I'm a freak of nature, ya' know. It turns out all I had to do to get back to normal, was to take another bath in some dark ooze. Not that I'd have done it freely anyway, 'cause man that stuff stings! But yeah, that's sort of all that there is to it. One big splash and I woke up looking even more gorgeous than I remembered," Daxter blabbered on, eager to tell her everything, but still wanting her to ask him to talk more, he deliberately left out the parts he himself thought had to be the most interesting.

Keira only looked at him, somewhat dumbfounded and still not quite realising who she was talking to.

She hadn't seen his real face for so many years that she had almost forgotten what he looked like.

The blonde rooted red hair was a bit longer, but still just as bushy as before and he still had tiny freckles covering the pale skin in his face. He still had the buck teeth as well, even though they didn't look as big as they used to. But a lot of his features had shifted with his age, making him look a little more grown up, even though he still would stand out in a crowd.

He'd simply become a man. And realising this, Keira couldn't help but to give up a small chuckle.

"What?" Daxter asked and took a step away from her to get a better look at her.

"Nothing," she said with a smile. "It's just great to actually see you like this."

"That goes both ways ya' know," Daxter replied and caught Jak's eyes over her shoulder. "Ain't that right, big guy?"

"Uhm, yeah," Jak answered, a bit unprepared and let his eyes wander off towards the stairs leading up to the top of the wall.

Keira turned around to face him and noticing his absentmindedness, she crossed her arms over her chest and got a disturbed expression in her previously lit up face.

"Well, as much fun as it is just seeing you guys again," she said in a more serious voice in a try to attract Jak's attention, "I'm actually here because my father and Torn sent me to speak with Sig for them. They would've come themselves, hadn't they had too much to do over at Haven."

Jak finally returned his eyes to her at this.

"Oh, right. Sig's still up on the wall, but we could take you to the palace and wait for him there. Me and Dax were going to meet up with him anyway," he said and turned to Jinx, who still tried to figure out who Daxter was, scratching his chin as he thought back in his memory.

"Hey, Jinx, you've got anything with you?"

Jinx snatched himself out of the mind loop and made a hinting motion towards the badly bumped car they'd arrived in.

"Nah, just some pretty dolls and a load of kisses, nothing much," he said with a smirk and winked at Jak. "I travel light this time, didn't know you'd be here."

Jak tried not to notice the vaguely inappropriate hint, closed his eyes and pinched at the root of his nose in order to focus on what mattered.

"Right, if that means you've got explosives in there, I suggest you get the stuff out of the car and into a safe store room, _before_ the mechanics start repairing the car."

Jinx took another look at the car and with one last bored look back to Jak, he sighed and went to the task.

"Ay, ay, goldy. You go ahead and I'll look you all up later."

As Jak started walking ahead towards the palace, followed by a somewhat confused Keira and an overjoyed Daxter, he noticed Sig coming down from the wall and waited for him.

Seeing Jak's troubled expression, Sig took a look at the two following him.

As he noticed Keira, he put on a hearty smile.

"Well what do we have here?" he said and reached out his hand in welcoming the female mechanic from Haven. "What brings you here then, doll? My guess is you're the one we got away from the metalheads just now, right?"

Keira smiled back and shook his hand.

"My father and Torn sent me. They wanted to speak with you, but couldn't get away, so I brought a recorded message with me from them. It's got something to do about some old maps Ashelin stumbled across some years ago, when clearing out the old archives they found under the ruins of the palace.

"Well then, let's get over to the conference hall in the palace then, so we can have a look at the thing," Sig said and took the lead through the city, asking Keira more about what was going on over in Haven while they walked.

Jak deliberately kept himself a few steps behind them, feeling a need to clear his head for a bit.

Daxter fell in beside him and gave him a concerned look.

"Hey, big guy, what's the matter? I thought you'd be happy to see her again after all this time…"

Jak shook his head and sighed.

He looked up to see if the others might hear what he had to say, and noticing they probably wouldn't, he decided it was safe.

"Dax, you know why I left Haven in the first place, right?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"No, listen, I've been thinking _a lot_ during these past two years and you know what? I still can't find any reasons to why I should be with her."

Daxter almost stopped walking, widening his eyes in surprise at this statement.

"But, but it's _Keira_! I mean, you've been like in love with her since we were kids playing together on the beach!"

"No, Dax," Jak said silently and looked away. "Lately I've realised that I actually never felt that way for her, I just thought I did. I…" Suddenly he cut himself short, not wanting to reveal what he'd been about to say, fearing it might bee too much information and that it would only sound strange.

"What? Ya' can't say something like that and just leave the subject without finishing it!" Daxter demanded. Taking a hold of Jak's shoulder guard with one of his hands he made him stop and turn towards him.

"Never mind," Jak answered and brushed off his hand to keep walking before they got too far behind the others.

"No, Jak!" Daxter said stubbornly and grabbed the shoulder guard again. "Now you tell me or you'll be sorry. I'm your best friend; I have a right to know this sort of stuff! So, you've realised you don't love the cutest girl in Sandover, who by the way is crazy about _you._ Now I wanna' know how you came to this conclusion while bumping around in the wastelands with me!"

Jak looked into his eyes with a start, thinking for a second that his friend had figured it all out himself, but noticing Daxter's still confused expression, he took a deep breath and brushed off his hand once more.

"I just did. Now let's try not to get too far behind, or they'll come looking for us," he said in a strained voice, trying to sound more at ease than he felt. He started jogging to catch up with Sig and Keira, leaving Daxter even more confused than before.

----------


	21. Story of a lost treasure

"The maps are indicating a hidden area spreading out underneath the entire city, some sort of extended system of caves and tunnels that, according to the notes following with the maps, haven't been used in at least two hundred years. However there's no indication of just _what_ these catacombs were used for."

Samos' raspy digitalised voice filled the air in the conference room.

Sig nodded every once in a while, as if taking mental notes of what the old sage informed them about.

Keira shifted her attention from the holographic recording of her father, to Daxter and then Jak and back again. She still had a hard time believing Daxter was back to normal. And then there was this strange behaviour from Jak.

Daxter made no secret of the fact that he wasn't listening to Samos.

It was more of an automatic act of defiance than a lack of interest though.

He simply couldn't stand listening to the old man, no matter what it was that he said.

Instead, he focused on Jak, never taking his eyes off him, trying to figure out just what he'd been on about earlier, on their way to the palace.

Jak on the other hand deliberately avoided any eye contact at all.

While listening to the information he did what he could to focus on what was said on the recording instead of thinking about how to get himself out of the emotional mess he'd managed to get into.

"…a marking that tells us something about a 'controlled light'. There are some other indicators of the precursors' involvement in the making of this place, but nothing we can tell for sure. What made me think of these maps when we got your message, was that there's a marking in the middle of the biggest drawn out cave."

The hologram shifted from showing the sage into a magnification of the mentioned part of the map.

Jak, Sig and Keira all leaned a bit forward to see more clearly what Samos meant to show them.

Daxter gave up his acted ignorance and did the same, once he realised this was something that could turn out to be important later on.

On the map they could see a big circle indicating the cave Samos had talked about.

It was connected to five different tunnels, taking different routes across the map.

Apart from this, none of the assembled listeners could see the marking mentioned.

"At first I didn't see it myself," Samos' voice said from the recording, "but then I somehow happened to lift it up in front of a candle, like this." After he'd said this, a light spot got visible from behind the map. Slowly all of them could detect thin grey lines spreading out on the parchment, growing into a symbol they by now all recognised.

Jak felt a sudden stinging sensation in the middle of his chest.

"Hey, that's the symbol of Mar!" Daxter called out as soon as the previously invisible ink completed the wave of lines that made out the ancestral mark of Jak's family tree.

"I'm guessing you all recognise this symbol, especially you Jak," Samos' voice said, and as the map disappeared, he was visible once again. "I don't know what this could mean, other than that it's important. According to a text I found among these maps in the archive once Ashelin got me back there, Mar hid something of tremendous power deep under ground out in the wastelands. This object is told in the text to have been forged by the precursors in order to help Mar as he fought an enemy far greater than himself. It was only a year after this fight that Mar died. The object somehow turned out to be seen as dangerous, but as it couldn't be destroyed, Mar decided to bury it deep down where no one was ever supposed to find it. If however one was to seek the power of this weapon, there's a warning telling that one person only to use it as a last recourse."

Jak looked at Sig, who slowly shook his head at this last comment.

"I don't know what all this is supposed to mean," Samos continued with a troubled face as the recording went on, "but it could be the very reason for the metalheads to be attacking Spargus. The way it sounded when Jak told us about the situation, I'm thinking there has to be someone else behind the metalhead attacks, controlling the beasts in order to get to what the city of Spargus has so valiantly and yet unknowingly protected throughout all these years. And my guess is that this someone isn't a good candidate to control this sort of power."

"Meaning he wants _us_ to go out there and find the thing before they do, right?" Daxter said and rolled his eyes at the hologram. "We always get the crappy jobs."

"Sig, I'll leave it for you to decide what to do with this information I've given you. Keira will bring back what ever message you might have for me or Torn when she returns to the city, since the coms still don't seem to work," the sage said and then turned around as if to leave, but hesitated and turned back.

"Oh, and Jak, my boy, I know you're there listening to this. I truly don't wish to send you out on yet another mission risking your life for the sake of others, but this time I'm afraid that it's vital that you go. As the last living descendant of Mar, my guess is that you're the only one who'll be able to find this forgotten weapon of his. At least without tearing up the entire city in the process."

The old man looked down at his feet, seemingly having some difficulties in finding his words.

"As I said, it's up to you what you do. But know that I have faith in you to do the right thing. I can only hope it won't harm you…" and by this, the message was abruptly ended as the free space of the recording device was filled.

Jak looked down at the table, his hands meeting at the back of his head as he leaned forward on his elbows.

"Told ya'," Daxter mumbled in a low voice as he looked with compassion at his troubled friend.

Sig hummed as he thought about what they'd learned from the message.

"You don't happen to have a copy of that map along with you, peaches, do you?" he said slowly as he turned towards Keira.

The mechanic winced as she was brought out of her own pondering at the problems they'd been served.

"What? Wait, yes, as a matter of fact I do. I think I forgot about it in the excitement after getting away from those metalheads," she said, babbling fast as she turned around to get out a small mechanical device from the bag she'd brought with her.

"Ehrm, toots, I don't mean to offend ya' or anything, but that's not a map," Daxter pointed out as she put down the device on the table.

Keira gave him a haughty look across the table as he said this and sighed before straightening herself up and getting ready to explain.

"This is one of my own inventions, Dax. Since the original map is too old and fragile to be transported outside the room where it's kept at the moment, not to mention the act of folding and unfolding it several times, I photographed it and sent the information into this," she lifted up the small square object for all to see, "my digital map. With this you can follow the part of the map you're on at the moment as well as zoom out to get an overlook when it's needed. _And_, did I mention you also can mark the place you want to get to? All of it without having to stop in your steps to unfold some huge piece of paper. What do you think?"

Jak nodded approvingly. It would make things a lot easier.

"Well then, let me have a look at it," Sig said and she handed him the digital map. He fell silent for a moment as he scanned the map.

"Oh, well, there's just one problem with this map," he said after a while, handing the device back to Keira.

"There's no entrance," Jak said before Sig could finish.

Sig lifted an eyebrow in surprise and nodded.

"Exactly. How did you…"

"I noticed that the first time Samos showed the map. It's drawn out as a closed off system of tunnels, seemingly with no way to either get in or out," Jak explained and tried to recall the map in his memory.

"That only makes sense," Keira added and slid the digital map across the table for Jak to take it. "It was supposed to be completely sealed off, right? There has to be some place where the wall is thinner than on the other places though, where they got in and out while building the tunnels, and where they probably sealed them as well."

"Yeah, but where? The map doesn't show any exterior walls," Jak commented this as he picked up the map to have another look at it.

"A-hum, excuse me, wise and all-knowing fellows," Daxter said and got up on his feet to walk up and stand behind Jak. "I think you're forgetting something. We all know the precursors weren't like us, right? They were ottsels! And as much as one of us would try, we wouldn't be able to fit through, let's say a sewer opening or something like that. While an ottsel, on the other hand…" he paused and pointed at the map in Jak's hands.

"Dax, you're a genius sometimes, you know that?" Jak said as he saw where Daxter pointed.

At this, Daxter straightened himself from having leaned over Jak's shoulder and had a slightly smug expression in his face.

"Well, of course. I'm the best there is," he said and patted Jak on the head. "Don't worry, big guy, you'll catch up with me soon enough."

"What is it?" Sig asked as he got around the table to look at the map as well, Keira following him.

Jak put the map on the table so that all could see the red blinking dot marking the very spot Daxter had pointed out for him.

At the lower left corner of the map, there was a small chamber of sorts. Looking closer on the drawing one could make out markings indicating the presence of water; some sort of fountain or small pool.

As Jak zoomed in on the area covered by the red dot, they could see a small sized opening where the water was meant to flow through according to the rest of the markings on the spot.

"It's a source of moving water!" Keira said with growing enthusiasm.

Daxter nodded approvingly.

"Good gal. Now to the next part; adding the city map of Spargus on top of this to see where this source could possibly come from. Once we know this, all we have to do is to get to the place, gently blast a small hole into a bigger hole and we'll be inside in no-time!"

He sat himself on top of the table and leaned back on his hands, feeling more than happy with himself for being the one to have discovered this entrance.

Sig went away for a minute, getting a city map from one of the shelves in his private quarters.

Once he was back, Sig spread out the map on the table and they all tried to match it with the digital map of the catacombs.

"There's the foot of the mountain making out this palace," Keira pointed out on the catacomb map and just about thirty seconds later she found what they'd been looking for.

"There it is!" she said and pointed out the spot on the city map. "It's right underneath the hills of the city coast line!"

"Well I'll be damned," Sig mumbled as he studied the maps. "We could get to it from the foot of the canon hill."

Jak thought about this solution for a moment as he remembered the landscape surrounding the mentioned spot.

"But, there isn't any cave opening there, is there?" he asked and looked at Sig for confirmation.

"No, that's right, cherry, but we could open one. There's no harm in doing it since the ground is solid rock and there aren't any buildings close by that could get damaged by a small blast. I'd say it's our only shot."

"Then I've got only one more question," Daxter said as he realised what was missing in this equation. "Where do we get the explosives?"

A knock on the door interrupted them.

"Enter!" Sig called out, curious of whom it might be.

The doors opened and revealed a tired Karidi.

The dark skinned woman was sweaty from working and the desert dust stuck to her like glue since the battle against the metalheads. She apparently hadn't taken any time to clean herself up yet, a fact that only enhanced the over all look of fatigue she represented at the moment.

"I'm sorry to interrupt sir," she said apologetically as she entered the room. "There's a strange man standing outside saying he's supposed to be in here with you. I brought him here from the garage as soon as we finished unloading his car."

"Well, bring him in then," Sig commanded and Karidi turned around waving for the man to get inside.

"Greetings to all of ya'," Jinx said as he stepped inside. He took a quick look at the people present, and at spotting Jak, he smiled. "I see ya' couldn't keep out of this, huh, pretty-boy?"

Daxter slipped down from the table and placed himself behind Jak, not feeling all too great about the sudden turn of events.

Completely ignoring the comment towards Jak, Keira stepped up to Jinx with a determined look in her face and put a firm hand on his shoulder.

"Jinx, what do you say about getting some use for those explosives of yours, hm?"

The blond man looked down at her and as his smile widened, he gave her a pat on her own shoulder.

"Darling, I never thought you'd ask."

-----------


	22. Breaking an entry

_I like writing Jinx... He's funny! At least he is in my version... XD Warning for some major insinutaions and wordgames here!_

* * *

Deep down in the darkness of a cave in the Citadel Mountains, something disturbs the still surface of the dark liquid filling up an underground pool.

_"Alive!_ He's _still alive! How can this be? It should not be, but it is!"_

A silent outcry of hatred, inaudible but filled with the promise of revenge.

Glittering droplets of the poisonous liquid splashes at the rock surrounding the vast pool of the cave.

A motion is taking place unseen in the darkness.

_"Calm down, dear one. We will get him. We'll_ kill _him!"_

A chilling anger is soothing the rage.

A cold mind caressing the rage of another, set on revelling in the emotion.

_"Yes, love, we will! I long to see him suffer for what he did!"_

Memory of old mistreatment is brought to the surface within a second, causing the fluid to boil with the heat awakened by the anger.

_"Easy now. Let's wait and see what happens. We know now, don't we, dear?"_

Movement, sound.

Something watching the void above with gleaming eyes covered by a thin film of oily blackness.

_"Yes, we do. We know where to find it! And we_ will _get it! And then, he'll pay. The world will be in our hands!"_

Suddenly a chuckle breaks the silence, amusement suddenly shown.

_"But slowly, dear one."_

A distant howling tells of a newborn monster somewhere above.

The nest that wasn't found is finally fulfilling its purpose.

Another chuckle.

_"Yes, slowly. Painfully. We'll hurt him, stab him, wring him dry and crush him! Curse the damned boy!"_

There are glittering dots covering the surface. Reflections of the false stars of the far away ceiling of the cave. Slowly they dance in a fluid motion of waves fading into the darkness.

_"Soon enough now. All we have to do is get it, and then all power is_ ours_! He will be cursed indeed."_

Now the chuckles turns into laughter and the numerous infant beasts that are hearing it cries out, knowing it's the joy of their creators, their benefactors.

_"We've found a way inside now, dearest. It won't be long before we have it."_

_"Yes. The power of all ecos! Purified and refined, stronger than before! We will get it and we will use it!"_

_"And he will pay."_

_"Yes, he will pay."_

----------

Jak shivered with the feeling of something bad being set in motion.

He looked at Daxter walking in front of him.

The redhead was talking with big gestures to illustrate his speech.

Loudly and gladly he was telling Keira all about what had happened to them during the past years.

True events, as well as not so true ones.

Sig was walking further ahead together with Jinx, discussing what was to be done and what was going to be needed.

With a sigh and a slight head shake, Jak smiled as his eyes returned to the back of Daxter's head.

"What's on your mind?"

Jak turned his head to look at the commander.

He'd almost forgotten about Karidi coming with them.

"Nothing, really. Why?"

Karidi looked at the two people walking a few steps ahead of them and shrugged.

"It's just that you looked so happy just now. Doesn't happen too often, ya' know," she said in a low voice and returned her grey eyes to Jak.

"Smiling suits ya' way better than frowning, by the way."

Jak could feel his cheeks grow warm and avoided to look at her.

He walked on in silence and tried to get away from her prying eyes.

Karidi sighed and jogged a few steps to catch up with him.

"So, are ya' gonna' tell me who this girl is, or do I have to ask her myself?" she asked as she once more walked beside Jak.

He turned his head towards her with a somewhat puzzled expression in his face, then he saw her nod towards the woman with blue-green hair walking in front of them.

"What? Why do you wanna' know?"

"Just curious. She seemed pretty close with ya' at the gate."

Thinking back at how Keira had flung herself upon him earlier, Jak closed his eyes and made an almost invisible shake of his head.

"She's an old friend, that's all. Grew up together with me and Dax."

Karidi lifted an eyebrow at this, but she didn't say anything more since Jak apparently didn't want to talk about it. But she silently added to herself , while slightly smiling, the fact that Jak apparently didn't like this woman even half as much as she appeared to like him.

The ocean was in an uproar as they entered the beach.

As Sig stopped to talk to some passing spargans, Jak silently walked down to the waves and didn't stop until his boots were washed by the waves slashing at the darkened sand.

He stood like that, with a dreaming look in his eyes as he watched the far off horizon beyond the sea, until someone silently put a hand upon his shoulder.

He slowly turned his eyes towards the other's smiling and yet sad face.

"Reminds ya' of home, doesn't it?" Daxter said as he looked at the ongoing waves.

Jak nodded slowly as he thought about all the things they'd lost on that fateful day that they'd sat themselves down in the machine that turned out to be a device taking them hundreds and maybe thousands of years into the future.

The homes they'd left and the faces they'd known were all lost to them now and nothing more but a fading memory, awakened by the sound of waves or the smell of grass.

"I miss it sometimes, ya' know," Daxter sighed and turned towards Jak. " Not Sandover as a place, but the times we spent there. The things we did. That careless life, ya' know."

Jak didn't know what to say.

He himself had his closest family with him – Samos, Keira and Daxter – but suddenly he realised that Daxter didn't. Not even once had Daxter mentioned it though, and he probably never would either, but the fact that Jak hadn't thought of it until now made him freeze in the middle of a breath.

"Dax…" he started out, his voice sounding grave and more serious than he'd expected it to.

The redhead looked at him, patiently waiting for what he was going to say, while he was reading his face and eyes for a sign of what was to come out of his mouth.

Jak found himself realising that this was one of the things that he loved the most with the young man at his side; the ability to understand what he meant, without him having to explain it in words.

"You know that I'll never leave you, right?"

"Aww, mush," Daxter snorted in a short laugh. "Don't grow all emotional on me now, or I'll forbid ya' to go near this place again!"

Jak smiled and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"No, seriously, Dax. I mean it. You said once that you'd never leave me alone, and I just realised I've never repaid you for that."

"Pfft." Daxter made a movement as if to shove him away, but never the less he smiled, touched.

"Yeah, well, ya' never had to say it, ya' know. I sort of took it for granted."

Jak ruffled his hair at this and felt a laughter slowly building in his chest.

Moments like this he felt like nothing had changed since the time they used to fool around at the beach of Sandover.

Then he had to take a deep breath when emotions far deeper and stronger made them selves known, as his hand brushed against the rough skin of Daxter's cheek.

He abruptly pulled away his hand and Daxter looked at him in surprise.

"What?"

"You need to shave," Jak answered, avoiding his eyes by turning towards the rest of the group on the beach.

"Oh, really?" Daxter replied puzzled and as he scratched his chin, he shone up. "I think you're right! _Sweet_! One more check-point for the Daxternator on his list of manliness!" he exclaimed this new discovery with growing joy and rushed out of the water and up on the beach, eager to share this with Keira.

Jak walked up after him, trying hard to calm the pounding of his heart at the sight of Daxter's happy face and the semi childish behaviour that was his trademark.

Sig walked up to him and patted his back in the usual confident manner that had made Jak think of him as some sort of an older brother; someone you could count on taking care of you and teaching you whatever that was necessary to survive.

"Ya' ready to get your butt into another black hole, cherry?" Sig said with a chuckle, but Jak could hear the strained voice and the insecurity seldom shown and met the other man's look.

"I don't think it'll be any different from other times I've done it. I'll manage," Jak said calmly and received a content smile from the dark skinned warrior at his side.

Sometimes Jak found it hard to remember that this was actually the new king of Spargus and not just the wasteland warrior he'd once learned to know while being a renegade fighter searching for revenge in the streets of Haven City.

"You two done patting yer' backs over there yet?" Jinx called out in an inpatient manner, urging them on with a waving hand and not giving a damn about the fact that Sig had the rank of royalty and deserved at least a little bit more respectful acting from his part.

"Where's the place ya' want a hole in?" he continued and butted out his cigar in the sand as Sig and Jak obeyed his wish for them to get closer.

Sig pointed out the spot and Jinx made a low whistle as he studied the water smoothened surface of the rock wall.

"This is hard stuff ya' wish to blow up, ya' know that?" the explosives expert said and turned back towards them. "I could just as well try to blow up one of them lead armoured tankers the baron used to send down the metalhead pits."

Sig lifted a bare eyebrow, slightly confused as the man was showing a face close to pure bliss as he delivered these news.

"Is that a bad thing, then?" Daxter asked before anyone else had the chance.

Jinx turned towards him with a smile on his face.

"Bad? Hell no! Did ya' hear me say I _couldn't_ do it?"

He reached down deep in the bag he'd brought to the beach and got a thick and darkly painted stick back up with him.

Still smiling, he attached a long fuse to the stick and patted it gently before he returned to the spot pointed out for him and stuck the mysterious explosive to the rock with a piece of duct tape.

"Hey, you're not planning to light it without warning us now, are ya'?" Daxter pointed out worriedly and Jinx only winked with one eye at him.

"Nah, I'll tell ya' when to take cover."

"Somehow that's not so comforting," Daxter commented this and took another step backwards from the blonde technician.

Jak shook his head at this and was about to tell Daxter to trust Jinx a bit more, considering he was a professional, when the man in question drew a flame to a match.

"Heads down if ya' wanna' keep them!" Jinx called out in glee as he lighted the fuse and started running towards the closest cliff for cover.

Karidi quickly grabbed a hold of Keira's arm and dragged her along as she and Sig followed Jinx as fast as possible and Jak turned to get a hold on Daxter's arm, when he suddenly found his own arm being grabbed by the redhead and suddenly he was the one being pulled along.

"No offence, big guy, but I'm _way_ faster than you nowadays!" Daxter called out to him over his shoulder.

Jak didn't find it necessary to argue about this and tried his best to keep up with Daxter.

They barely managed to throw themselves down behind one of the cliffs sticking up from the sand, as the explosive device was set off with a loud blast that shook the ground beneath them and sent small pieces of rock in a short shower over their heads.

Jak waited a few breaths before he dared to trust his legs enough to stand up and take a look at the damage.

"_Wohoo_!" Jinx shouted in excitement as he got up from his shelter of choice a few strides away from Jak and Daxter. "Now _that's_ a boom worth it's name!"

Sig stood up chuckling at this, while Karidi and Keira both looked slightly vindictively in the bomber's direction.

"One would think he'd care to warn us a little bit sooner!" Daxter mumbled from down in the sand and slowly got back to his feet, brushing grains of sand and gravel from his hair and clothes.

Jak had to bite his lip in order not to laugh at the sight of his friend's facial expression.

"One of these days I'll shove one of those boomsticks up his ass! Then we'll see who's smiling..." Daxter added with a quick look at Jinx, walking up to the former solid wall and waving the smoke away.

Some spargans had gathered near by, wondering about the explosion, but seeing Sig walking calmly up to the man guilty for the blast, most of the citizens wandered off with a shrug, figuring it wasn't a big deal if the king didn't panic over it. The ones still watching were merely curious of the reasons for blowing up parts of the rock ground the city was built upon.

Sig had handled this by making the spargans he'd talked to before the operation keep guard, so that none got too close to be safe from the blast.

As to explaining why he meant to blow something up, he'd actually told them the truth, figuring it would leak out soon enough anyway.

When the wisps of smoke and dust was cleared, they could all see a small hole in the rock wall.

Jinx leaned in to have a look at it and as Jak and Daxter arrived to his side, he looked daringly into Jak's eyes and placed a crooked smile on his lips indicating with a thumb at the opening.

"Ya' think ya' can get through this with that tight ass of yours, pretty boy, or would ya' rather have me take another go at it?"

Before Daxter even had a chance to so much as try to comment this pretty much obvious invitation to word games with sexual insinuations and invitations, Jak put a warning hand on his friend's back.

"I think we'll manage, Jinx," he answered shortly and noticed the slightly disappointed look in the bomber's eyes as he didn't answer to the "tight ass"-comment.

Daxter couldn't help but sticking out his tongue at him while Jak bent down to get inside the newly opened tunnel.

Jinx flinched for a moment and then took another look at Jak's crouched figure before he returned his eyes to the redhead.

"Ok, sweet cheeks," he said in a low voice as Sig moved to ask Jak about the upcoming task. "You obviously know Jakey here pretty well, but I must say I haven't seen ya' before, so how come you're the one getting all the good stuff all of a sudden?"

This got Daxter a bit off balance for a swift moment as he tried to understand what the man was talking about.

"Well, ya' see, first of all I've been around Jak for just about all his life, and secondly…" Daxter suddenly caught the entire message and felt his face turn red. "What the heck was _that_ supposed to mean?"

Jinx didn't give in though.

"Don't try to dodge me, smart-ass. If you've been around for all this time, I should've seen ya', so don't try foolin' me with that crap. I don't care how long you've known him, I just wanna' know why he picked _you_ of all the sappy sods out here, when I've been trying to hook him for precursors knows how long!"

Daxter found himself in search for words as he got this confession of sorts thrown at him.

"What? Wait…_What_? You were _serious_ about that stuff?"

But before Jinx could get anything more out of the perplexed former ottsel, Jak called for him.

"We might have to use one more boomstick further up the tunnel you've made. You don't happen to have any smaller stuff with you?" Jak asked and completely missed out on the awkward expression in Daxter's face.

Jinx thought for a moment and then dug around in his bag for a while before he presented Jak with four thin yellow sticks of eco tainted dynamite.

"These ones should do, but you'll have to take cover some way off from it, 'cause they still make one heck of a fuzz about being blown up," Jinx said as he gave the explosives to him. "It's a twenty second fuse, take care to remember that. Ya' wouldn't want to go and blow yourself and what's-his-name up in the process, now would ya'?"

Jak pulled a face at this and as he stuffed the dynamite into a small back pack, he motioned for Daxter to get ready.

"His name's _Daxter_, and no, hopefully you haven't given me the wrong time for the fuses."

With this said, Jak got some last instructions from Sig and the digital map from Keira, before he got back into the opening in the wall.

Daxter bent down to follow, when Jinx stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"Now, don't ya' dare go dyin' on me before I get an answer from ya'. I mean to keep fishing for golden wonder here until I get him," the blonde whispered mockingly.

Daxter didn't answer this, but simply pushed him away with an annoyed expression in his face before he easily slid in through the small tunnel opening.

Jinx straightened himself up and kept his eyes at the hole with a troubled wrinkle between his eyes.

Keira saw this and stepped up to him.

"Something bothering you, Jinx?" she asked, worried it had to do with the safety of Jak's and Daxter's lives in using the explosives sent with them.

As Jinx didn't answer, Keira got agitated and slapped at his face.

Hard.

"_Ouch_! Are ya' mad, woman? Geez, that was _so_ uncalled for!" Jinx muttered and took a step away from her.

"I asked you a question and damn you Jinx if you don't tell me what's wrong with the stuff you sent with them!"

"Humpf," Jinx snorted, taking the assumption as an insult. "Nothing's wrong with my babies, honey. I just can't get into my head who the hell this redhead is… He seems familiar enough, but I can't remember ever seeing him…"

Keira was so relieved she laughed out loud at this.

"What?" Jinx demanded to know as Keira shook her head.

"And here I thought you were concerned with whether or not they'd be safe using your bombs!"

"Yeah, yeah, just tell me who the guy is and wipe that smug look off your face!" Jinx mumbled as he waved off the comment.

"You don't happen to remember the ottsel who took over the Hip Hog back in Haven, once Krew was out of the picture?" Keira said with a glitter of amusement in her eyes.

"Well, yeah, hard to forget the fella', especially since he never stopped talking! So?"

"That's him."

"That's who?"

"Daxter. The redheaded guy used to be that ottsel. He just changed back to his _ordinary_ self."

At first Jinx thought she was fooling around.

Then she told him the entire story as they walked back with Sig and Karidi to the palace, the latter of them listening eagerly as well as Jinx, while the explanation was given.

Sig, having gotten the whole thing told to him earlier by Jak, simply walked on with a smile on his face at the others' apparent confusion.

Then, as he finally understood the truth of it all, Jinx fell silent.

"Oh, blimey. I'm outdone by a fuzzball," he mumbled to himself as the information sunk in.


	23. Light among shadows

_OK, huge warning for those of you not liking non-canon pairing of two major characters of a story: I'm aware of the fact that some of you might be reading this story, and respect your opinion, but I'm a fan of the possibileties to do whatever you like in a fanfic. And I like it this way, as much as I like the canon. Deal with it. _

_Some bad language is going to be used here as well, my apologies in advance to those a little sensitive to this._

_With this said; please read and enjoy! ;)_

_Love/ Silverspegel_

* * *

"Yuck! I think I stepped on something!"

Daxter searched the dark surface of the waist high water for any sign of sudden movements that didn't belong to him or Jak and tried hard not to think about the possible predators that could be hiding in the darkness.

Jak turned around and directed his electric torch towards him with a concerned face.

"You don't have to follow me, you know. You could still turn around and wait outside with the others…"

Daxter closed his eyes hard and shook his head at this.

"Don't start on me, Jak! I'm coming with you no matter what, ya' hear?" he objected and opened his eyes to stare at him.

"I've survived in your company this far, haven't I? I just have to get used to walking on my own, that's all. Besides, it wouldn't feel right to leave you to do all the dirty work alone."

"All right, I get it," Jak said and turned around to keep walking. "Just remember that you had a choice."

Daxter pushed on, getting himself walking next to Jak and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, if _you _remember I told ya' _not _to do the stuff that will get us into the trouble making me wanna' regret this," he said with a wide grin and Jak couldn't help but stretching his lips as well.

"Deal," he said.

They walked on in silence for a few minutes, until they reached a solid wall blocking their way.

Jak took out the map and studied it carefully, searching for something that could help them find out what to do.

"I think it's a dead end, Jak," Daxter noted and knocked at the stone wall. "See? Solid mountain this one. I don't think we wanna' use those boom-sticks here either, no matter _what_ Mr. Blow-it-up-laughing said."

Jak wrinkled his nose in concentration.

"I don't know, Dax. We should be able to go straight forward from here, look," he said and showed him the map. "Se the green dot there? That's us. If this is right, the room with the fountain should be right behind this wall."

Daxter looked at the map and then at the grotto they were standing in at the moment.

"I don't know, Jak. Maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere…"

The look in Jak's eyes was enough to tell Daxter this wasn't the deal, and since there had been nothing but a straight way forward all the way from the opening and to this wall, this suggestion seemed wasted.

"Well, we can't blow it up, right? At least you'll have to agree with me on that."

"Yes," Jak replied and put the map away in the waterprooved bag Keira had sent with them, while directing his eyes towards the water.

"What?" Daxter asked as he noticed this and started to look around himself in fear it might have been something dangerous sliding past them in the water.

"Maybe we just haven't looked on the right level…"

Without explaining what he meant by this, Jak took a deep breath and dived into the water.

A short moment later, he broke the surface again and made a "thumbs up" towards Daxter, who pulled a face at the thought of having to swim under water.

"There's a small entrance down by the bottom. I think we could squeeze through it."

"Don't we have any other choices?" Daxter asked nervously, but Jak didn't care about this objection. Instead he took another deep breath before he dived once more.

Daxter shrugged and decided he could just as well get wet all over, since he'd already put half his body into the water.

Another half of it wouldn't do any difference, and he was soaked already anyway.

Below the surface the world turned a lot darker, but he could make out the edge of the opening Jak had mentioned.

Before he could start to wonder about what had happened to Jak, he spotted a vague light shining through the opening, meaning Jak had probably already made it to the other side and now meant to light his way.

He swam into the opening and tried his best not to panic in the small space.

Right before he felt as if his lungs were going to explode from the pressure of being without a regular input of air, he felt a hand grab onto his own and soon he was forcefully pulled out of the water.

"That wasn't too hard, now was it?" Jak said with a crooked smile at Daxter's grimace while he stroked the wet strands of red hair away from his face.

"Yeah, a very funny experience…" Daxter mumbled as he turned on his own torch to take a better look at the room they'd entered.

The walls of the grey mountain rock had been smoothened into a clear surface resembling that soft look of polished marble seen in palaces.

From the rounded ceiling something looking very much like an oversized oil lamp hung in thick chains.

But most importantly, there was a small fountain placed in the middle of the room.

"Hey, am I good or what?" Daxter exclaimed as he noticed this. "This is the room I pointed out for ya', right? I told ya' there was a way in!"

Jak only smiled in agreement and took out the map to see which way to take next.

"Now, if this map is correct, we won't have any trouble getting to the big room with the symbol drawn on it," he mumbled to himself as he tried to find the easiest way to get there.

Daxter looked at him in silence, suddenly caught by the thought of how much he'd changed over the years.

His thick green eyebrows pushed together in concentration over the still wondrously clear blue eyes, just like he'd always done when thinking on something important, but now there were small, practically invisible, wrinkles at the corners of those eyes.

The face that used to hold no worries was marked with the hardships they'd gone through the last seven or more years since that first fateful day when they'd made their visit to Misty Island.

The latest of these marks was the big scar across his right cheek; a scar Daxter didn't remember him ever getting.

And then there was something else, along with the scar, that had first made Daxter react on his friend's changed appearance.

Jak looked _tired_, tired to the point of almost looking old.

There was a hint of sadness in his eyes from the time when they'd been parted that hadn't fully disappeared yet, despite the fact that they were now back together again.

Jak was slowly breaking down, and even though he'd been proud to tell anyone who listened that he could read Jak like an open book, Daxter hadn't noticed this until now.

As this realisation came to his mind, Daxter felt a sudden need to hit himself, but he knew it wouldn't change things.

This was his best friend, someone he held closer to his heart than anyone else, and still he hadn't been able to tell that he was hurting.

He really wanted Jak to smile right then and there and tell him he was alright.

He wished for it, but he knew it wouldn't happen.

Besides, Jak was a lousy liar and no matter how much Daxter wished for it to be otherwise, it would be a lie, he knew that now.

"Dax? You alright?"

Jak had put away the map again and was now looking worriedly at him.

Daxter shook his head in a try to snap out of it.

He couldn't tell Jak he'd noticed this, at least not now.

"Yeah, I just spaced out for a moment, buddy, no worries."

Jak made a face telling Daxter he didn't fully believe this, but he decided not to argue over it.

"We'll have to take to the right outside of this room, then it should be a close to straight walk for us if I got the map right," Jak told him as he turned around and walked up to the single opening in the room; an open doorway leading out to a dark corridor of sorts.

"Seriously, I wonder if there isn't any way of lighting this place up a bit more," Daxter muttered as he followed him. "I mean, our torches are pretty good, but it's a little bit annoying that I can't see everything at once."

Jak turned to the right as he'd said, then stopped and looked at something on the wall beside him.

"What? Ya' found something?" Daxter asked and stepped up beside him to have a better look himself.

Jak suddenly reached out and touched the wall with his open hand, pressing it against the stone.

A slow humming started to fill the air around them and only a few seconds later the entire place was suddenly lit up with a pale reddish light streaming through numerous markings on the walls, creating a strange pattern across the floor, the ceiling and both Jak's and Daxter's bodies.

"Wow! How d'ya' do that?" Daxter called out in amazement as he studied the signs on the walls.

Jak took away his hand from the wall and revealed the mark of Mar, on which he'd pushed.

"Geez, you're getting stranger every year I know ya'," Daxter said slowly and looked at him with a curious face. "How did ya' know what to do? It could've been a trap ya' know."

Jak simply shrugged at this and walked on through the corridor. Daxter put away the torch he'd been carrying and followed Jak as he walked on ahead of him.

All seemed to go pretty well, but a feeling of something not being quite right was starting to grow in the area of Daxter's stomach.

He knew by experience that he should trust this gut-feeling of trouble rising, but he simply couldn't figure out what was going to happen and tried to blame the nervous tickling on his own over-active fantasy creating monsters in every shadow.

But the further they got, the stronger the feeling grew and he finally realised what it was that made him nervous.

"Hey, Jak, something's not right here. I mean, shouldn't there be at least some sort of _trap_ here? I mean, this is supposed to be the hiding place of the greatest weapon ever created, or something like that, but this far we haven't faced even a simple trapdoor, ya' getting me? Heck, Mar's own tomb held more dangers than this place!"

Jak stopped in his steps and turned to look at him.

"I was starting to think about that myself," he said in a low and troubled voice. "The map shows a labyrinth, but for some reason this way was clear. We can't go through the labyrinth; that would be too risky and take too much time. This is our only option, Dax. We'll just have to keep our eyes and ears open."

With this he turned around again to keep on walking.

Daxter was about to follow him, but Jak hadn't even taken two steps before it was as if the entire floor disappeared underneath him.

They'd found the trap.

"_Jak_!" Daxter called out in panic and threw himself forward, reaching out to grab his friend as he fell down the hole that had opened up beneath his feet.

Jak could see everything happen as if in slow motion.

He turned around in the air as he heard Daxter call out, and tried to find something to grab to stop him from falling, but couldn't see anything useful and even though he reached out to take Daxter's hands, he knew he wasn't going to be able to catch them in time.

He caught a glimpse of his friend's panicked face, before it went out of sight as the edge passed him by.

For a second it was as if a wall was shooting up from the ground, instead of him falling down.

All of his thoughts and feelings then summoned in one single word, which he screamed out as he fell into the shadows below.

"NO!"

In the darkness he bumped violently into parts of rock sticking out from the otherwise vertical walls closing up on him.

Despite this, he never found anything to grab on to and ended up scraping his fingers, knees and elbows as he tried to find a grip while rapidly falling further down the hole.

The bottom came crashing into him hard, sending a heavy quake through his entire body as his feet hit solid rock.

A cracking sound, and a slowly growing aching in his legs as the rest of his body fell to the floor, told Jak he'd broken something.

"_Fuck_!"

He bit his lip in a try to keep from screaming out loud, and could taste blood on his tongue as the pain in his legs suddenly exploded through his body.

This was bad.

Really bad.

He wouldn't be able to walk out of the place, wherever it was, and to top it all off, he'd dragged Daxter with him on this mission, leaving him alone and worried at the top of this pit.

"Jak?"

It was Daxter's voice breaking through the silence, echoing faintly in the darkness surrounding Jak.

The sound came from somewhere far above him, but Jak still could hear the vague tint of fear in his friend's voice.

"Answer me, buddy, ya' alright? Jak? Please be alright…"

Jak squeezed his eyes shut against the darkness and clenched his teeth hard as he forced himself to move, using his hands to drag himself up into a sitting position.

The excruciating pain was shooting up through his spinal cord, but he shut it out in the same way he'd shut the pain out while being violently pierced by a beam of concentrated dark eco at the prison; by pushing it into his subconscious while focusing on something else.

"Jak?"

Daxter's voice trembled.

Jak took as deep a breath as the pain allowed him to and braced himself in order to speak up and make himself heard.

"Dax? Can you hear me?"

A short pause and something far away sounding vaguely like a sigh of relief.

"Jak! Oh, ya' scared the shit out of me! Don't _do_ that! Are ya' alright? Do ya' think ya' could get back up?"

Taking another deep breath, Jak forced down a growl as a slight, unintended movement of his legs sent the pain prickling throughout his body.

"I can't… I can't get out of here, Dax. I… Can't move. Just… you should get out of here... Get help."

"_Don't ya' dare tell me I should run away and just leave ya' here_!" Daxter objected, voice heated. "I don't _care_ if I have to sit here until I starve, I'm _not_ leaving you again! No way! There has to be a way for ya' to get out of there! Just… I could get a rope or something…I…"

Jak smiled sadly where he sat, imagining his friend's worried face.

"Listen, Dax, I can't move properly. Both my legs are broken. Either you try to get some help, or you won't get me out of here."

Jak fell silent for a moment as he thought about what to say next.

Somewhere above him he could hear Daxter draw heavily for his breath, as if having been hit in the face.

"We both know I'm too heavy for you to hold should you find a rope", he continued before Daxter had a chance to object. "And since the map is here with me, your only chance of getting out of here is to do so while the lights up there are still on," he added, hoping this might make his friend at least consider to do as he suggested.

"Don't talk like that, Jak! I'll get you out of there, you'll see. I'll go back to find some rope and…"

"No, Dax. Get help."

Silence fell as Jak tried not to make a sound of the increasing pain as the numbing effects of his adrenaline wore out.

If only he had something he could splint the brakes with…

He searched his pockets and found the torch.

It flickered unsteadily for a moment as he turned it on, but it still worked.

He'd intended to examine his wounds closer, but as he tried to lean forward, he lost balance for a moment, fumbled and dropped the torch on the ground, watching as it rolled off to the side and cursed under his breath at his bad luck.

Then he saw something glimmering in the shaky beam of light sent out by the torch as it hit the wall.

Figuring he had nothing to lose, Jak started to slowly pull himself over towards the torch, using only his hands and arms.

As he finally got to the torch, he picked it up and tried to find the glimmering spot again.

He swept with the light across the area in front of him; and there it was again.

A glimmering reflection of the light, sent off from a small piece of what looked awfully a lot like metal, partly hidden beneath some fallen rocks only a few steps away.

Thinking it could be something he could use for splinting his broken legs, Jak tucked the torch down his shirt, making it stick up from his collar so as to still light up the way. Carefully, he then started to move towards the glimmer, while doing his best to ignore how much his legs hurt as he dragged them across the uneven floor.

Sweat was breaking out from his forehead and his arms ached from the strain he put on them, but he didn't stop to rest, fearing it might take him too long to get to the goal if he did.

When he got to it, he saw that it was indeed metal, but it wasn't a spear or pipe or anything like that.

It was rounded.

As he touched the smooth, cool surface of the metal, a shrill of excitement ran through his fingers, making them itch.

Jak hastily shoved the rocks aside, and as he cleared the thing from the last stones, he suddenly felt much better, realising just what he had found.

It was an eco-vent.

It was closed at the moment, but there had to be a way to open it, and if he did open it, it could be useful.

Sensing the same tingle of excitement in his hands as he touched the metal again, Jak knew it would be more than useful.

He felt his way around the well with his hands, searching for any sort of mechanism that could open it, but there was nothing.

Frustrated at being so close to the solution of his present predicament, Jak hit the well hard on its side with one fist and let out a growl sounding close to being on the brim of rage.

And as if by some sort of twisted sense of humour, the vent suddenly opened with a soft humming.

"Jak? Ya' alright? Hey, what's happening down there?" Daxter called down to him, voice worried.

A pale blue and white light streamed out of the metal marking out the vent.

Jak instantly put his hand into the light, feeling the eco fill up his every cell as he did.

"Jak! Answer me!" Daxter was screaming now, anxiety taking over as he didn't get an answer.

"It's alright, Dax!" Jak finally called out. "Just stay away from the opening; I don't want you falling down here."

As he finished talking, Jak placed himself on top of the opened well, letting his body absorb the eco faster.

A tingling sensation started in his skin as his abilities kicked in, the eco acting on what had to be done at the moment.

The feeling quickly went deeper into his muscles and filled his veins with comfortable warmth as he felt all the recent bruises healing up.

A sudden clicking and popping sound let him know his bones were mending themselves.

Within a mere minute, Jak felt good enough to walk again, but he still stayed inside the light for another minute, filling up his reserves as much as he could, before he stepped out.

"You're still alive, right? Jak?" Daxter asked, a bit uncomfortable with the silence.

"I've never been better," Jak replied calmly as he walked up to the opening above from which he'd fallen down.

"What?"

Jak smiled.

"There's a light eco-vent down here. I got it open. Now stay back and I'll be back up there in a moment."

Jak closed his eyes and mentally reached down into his sources of energy.

A light shone brightly on the back of his eyelids and suddenly his world was embedded in a soft blue shimmer.

In an instant his body felt no heavier than a feather in a summer breeze.

He opened his eyes as he felt a pair of huge wings make their way out from his back.

His skin was a crisply glowing blue and his every movement cast a wave of light onto the surroundings.

Directing his eyes upwards, Jak now could make out the route he'd have to take on his way up through the shaft.

He bent his knees, readied his wings and then jumped straight up.

With one mighty flap of his wings, he was in the air, steadily pushing higher with the wings' every movement.

Seeing the bright light closing up on him from the dark depths, Daxter quickly backed away to leave Jak room to land as he shot up from out of the hole he'd fallen into.

As he watched the serene being landing before him, Daxter didn't know just how he should react.

When he'd seen Jak fall, he'd been so afraid, so aware of everything that he could lose and everything that he never wanted to happen, that he'd suddenly seen clearly for the first time just what Jak meant to him.

And as Jak had called out to him about finding the eco-vent, the feelings had exploded in his chest, knowing he'd gotten another chance.

But now that Jak was standing there, in all the glory of his light form, Daxter was suddenly reminded of the difference between them and all the things he'd wanted to say, slipped away and got stuck in his throat.

So, he loved him? But it was still Jak. His best friend. The hero chosen by the precursors and the one person who had done all that was within his power to save him when it was needed. How could he possibly believe, even for one moment, that he would feel the same way about him?

Jak looked at him in silence and opened his arms, only to close them around his back in what to Daxter felt like an otherworldly embrace.

"D-don't scare me like th-that a-again, ya' hear?" Daxter stuttered as he felt tears of relief fall down his cheeks and pressed his face against the glowing chest, wanting to stay in Jak's arms for the rest of his life.

Jak only leaned his head to rest softly against Daxter's and squeezed him harder for a moment.

_"Sorry."_

Daxter felt the word more than he heard it, but he knew the meaning of it.

"Yeah, you better be," he mumbled slowly and forced himself to break the embrace.

Jak's glowing white eyes were directed at him, but Daxter couldn't bare looking back at him, afraid that his feelings would show in his face.

Instead he looked at the corridor continuing on the other side of the hole.

"Maybe we should use those wings while you have them and get safely across that part of the floor," he said and pointed at the hole.

Jak nodded and without further ado, he once more pulled Daxter into his arms, held on tight, and with a flap of the wings they were on the other side.

The moment his feet touched the floor, Jak forced the light eco back into his system, not wanting to waste it in case he'd need it later on.

Daxter had closed his eyes and was still holding on to him though.

Jak felt a rush of warm blood heating his face as he suddenly got aware of the sensation of the red hair brushing against his chin and the skinny but strong arms closing around him.

With a shivering inhale of air, Jak slowly pressed him closer to him, never wanting to let go.

"Dax," he said, voice filled with emotion. He didn't know what to say, but he felt he had to say something.

As he felt Daxter tense in his arms, Jak tried desperately to find the words.

"Thank you."

Daxter loosened his hold of him and looked up.

"For what?"

"For not leaving."

Daxter finally broke the embrace and put a trembling smile on his lips.

"Now why would I? I promised ya' not to, right? I left ya' once... no wait, twice, and just see what happened to ya'! I can't leave ya' alone for one moment or you'll go and get yourself killed or something close to it. I can't do that to ya', ya' know. You're my pal!"

Jak smiled softly and looked him in the eyes.

"Yeah. I'm just glad you're still with me. After all the things I've done and put you through, you'd be right to leave me, you know. But you stayed, and for that I'm thankful."

Daxter's own smile faltered at this.

"Oh, come on! Don't be like that, ya' big emo! Not everything bad in the world is your fault!"

Jak didn't say anything to this and Daxter didn't want to carry on the discussion, so he simply turned around and looked at the corridor stretching out in front of them.

"So…" he said slowly. "Shall we carry on?"


	24. Break out

_Sorry for the delay guys... Sometimes I really do think I'm infected with a minor case of amnesia... :S Anyways, hope the text's been worth the waiting. X3_

* * *

"I still think we should've given them a com!" Keira argued in a heated voice.

She forcefully smacked her hand down on the stone table in the palace's conference room.

"It wouldn't have mattered, sweetie, 'cause, as I've told you already, they're all _dead_! Something's been buggin' them since _weeks_ back. Haven't you listened?" Karidi growled back from behind her clenched teeth, trying her best to keep from hitting the Haven mechanic straight across her face.

Jinx was watching from where he sat, not even hiding his apparent amusement over the growing enmity between the two women standing in front of him.

"It doesn't keep me from wishing it had been done!" Keira pointed out and fixed her stare at the dark woman. "For all we know the coms could get back working any time now and I just don't like the idea of Jak and Dax not being able to contact us in case something happens!" she snarled back at the agitated commander, doing her best to stare her down.

Before Karidi could answer to this, Sig stepped in between them.

With a grim expression set in his face he turned to Karidi, who suddenly felt a sting of shame at the sight of her king ready to scold her.

"Now, why are you two fighting like enemies?" Sig said slowly. "As far as I know, we're all on the same side, right? Now get your act together, commander, and stop acting like an untamed leaper on loose reins!"

"Yes, sir! Sorry, sir!" Karidi answered readily and bowed her head to show she was sincere in wanting to please him.

"That goes for you too, peaches," Sig said as he turned towards Keira, who'd placed herself on one of the chairs and was now staring down at the table.

Sig's features softened a little as he looked at her worried appearance and he sighed heavily.

"I know you worry for him, for both of them. But there's no reason to. There's nothing those two can't do when together, right? I don't like this either, but I know my cherries, and I trust them to make it even without our help."

Keira picked at some invisible grain of sand at the table and closed her eyes.

"You mean well, I know that, Sig. I just can't help feeling something bad's gonna' happen to them. I simply can't get the pieces to fit together."

Jinx leant forward from his side of the table and looked at her with a curious face.

"What're ya' talking 'bout?" he asked as he put out his almost burnt out cigar by dropping the remains of it into his water mug.

"That marauder, for instance: what could he possibly win by telling us where to find this thing? It just doesn't seem right. I bet he knows way more about this than he says he does and I don't like it, not one bit!"

Karidi nodded slowly in agreement.

She'd been starting to think about this herself.

"Why don't we try to get some more info out of the guy, then?" Jinx suggested in an indifferent voice as he put a cigarette in his mouth and started searching his pockets for matches.

Sig looked at him with surprise shining in his natural eye.

He hadn't expected for the bomb technician to show any interest in this matter and most certainly not to make any suggestions for action.

Jinx ignored the looks from his companions and kept on searching his pockets.

When he finally found the matches, he struck fire to one of them and lighted his cigarette.

While waving out the flame from the match, he drew a deep breath, inhaling the smoke, just to let it out through his nose a few seconds later.

"I know you're not stupid enough to trust him on his word, right?" he finally said leisurely and leant back in the chair.

Sig gave him a quick nod.

"I've actually already sent for him to be brought here. I'm finding the whole thing a bit too fuzzy at the edges myself. But at least he was telling the truth about the hidden catacombs. The thing that bugs me, just as you pointed out, is what the guy could possibly win in telling us about this. Hopefully it won't be too dangerous a secret for our boys being down there."

Keira looked up from her silent pondering and caught sight of the thin wrinkles of worry showing in the wastelander's face, despite him trying to keep his face blank of expression.

"We're just as worried as you, Sig," she said and the spargan king flinched.

"But it won't be your fault if something happens," she continued. "None of us can be blamed for things out of our control. The precursors know I've learned that the hard way. Growing up with Jak and Dax wasn't all too easy sometimes, I can tell you that."

She got up from her chair and walked up to the single window of the room, facing the ocean.

"Another thing I've learned is to trust them to get out of whatever trouble they've gotten in to. Somehow Jak has the ability to finish what he starts. I guess that's why I still believe in him being capable of doing just about anything."

"So..." Jinx breathed out slowly, sending a thin veil of smoke rising towards the ceiling as he did so. "When's the bad guy supposed to be gettin' here then?"

Sig blinked, not quite sure for the moment of what the blonde was talking about, seeing it was completely out of the context of what Keira had talked about. However, it didn't take long for him to catch up with the change of subject.

"It should be any minute now..." he started saying, but was interrupted by a loud and persistent knocking at the door.

"That doesn't sound right," Karidi said as she turned to open, instinctively moving her right hand closer to the gun she was carrying in a holster strapped onto her thigh.

She'd hardly had a chance to unlock the door before a whirlwind of reddish brown slipped past her, making her turn quickly and draw her gun in one swift movement, ready to protect her king standing behind her, but she lowered it just as quickly once she saw who the trespasser was.

"_Fish_! Don't just run in like that! I could have shot you!" she yelled at the young girl who'd stopped only a step away from Sig.

"Sorry, babe... But it's kinda' urgent!" Fish panted and slowly straightened herself to face the surprised and somewhat worried man in front of her.

"Now, what's the rush, pumpernickel?" Sig asked her; careful to let the young girl know he was genuinely interested in what she had to say and meant to take the information seriously.

"I ran over here as soon as I saw it happen. Sort of figured ya' should know 'bout it. That creepy marauder dude ya' got here sort of took out the guards ya' sent for him. He's goin' for the east gate, last I saw of him."

"_What_?!"

Everyone gathered in the room got to their feet as one man and headed out through the door before anyone had said anything about leaving.

"Now I'm _sure_ he's hiding something!" Sig murmured darkly as they all got into the elevator.

"Fish was it?" he then asked, turning towards the young girl who'd brought the message. She looked up at him with a daring expression in her freckled face and smiled.

"Yeah, but I ain't fishy, if ya' gettin' me," she said and actually made the dogged warrior smile back.

"Well then, I hope you'll be able to tell us which route this blue haired beast vermin took?"

Fish nodded sharply at this and started running as soon as the elevator stopped at the ground floor.

"Right this way, folks! I've got some leapers waiting for ya'!"

Sig got a curious expression in his face at this and turned towards Karidi as they all followed the young girl outdoors.

"She's helping out at the stables and the corrals. Quite some animal charmer, actually," Karidi answered the unpronounced question. Then she turned to look over her shoulder at Keira and Jinx following them.

"You two might wanna' keep away from this..." she started but was cut short by Keira as she ran past her.

"Just try making me stay behind and I'll make you sorry for it, woman!" she snapped at her and both Jinx and Sig smiled at the commander's perplexed expression.

"And I ain't missing this for anything in the world," Jinx added with a snigger in his voice as they stopped by the animals, waiting at the bottom of the palace gate stairs.

"Kay, I'll just have to ride along with you sir, then the rest of you could just get one each of them," Fish said and handed over the reins of one of the leapers to Sig as he stopped in front of her.

As soon as they were all up in their saddles, Fish pointed out the direction and they set off in a flying speed through the alleys.

Even before they'd reached the gate, the group could hear the tumult caused by the escaping marauder trying to get to the gate before he was out of luck.

Sig pressed his leaper to run faster and caught sight of Dart as the man knocked down a spargan who'd tried to stop him.

"Hold it right there, scumbag!" Sig boosted out in a loud voice, making Dart turn around to look at him.

The marauder knew better than to obey the order, so the moment he saw them coming for him, he ran.

Sig suddenly left the reins of the leaper to Fish.

"Keep him running while I load my gun, will ya', puppy?" he said and Fish took the reins with a frown at the nick-name.

"I'm no dog, pops," she muttered wittily, but did as she was told anyway.

Karidi came up riding alongside them for a moment and after a silent communication of nods and hand signs between her and Sig, she picked up speed and passed them, making a wide circular movement to intercept the fleeing marauder before he got to the gate.

Dart felt the panic rising as he saw the dark skinned commander ride her leaper towards him and heard the others closing in on him from behind.

He was trapped and he knew it.

Everything had gone so well up until now and he was about to curse his bad luck, but kept the curse in.

He _would_ get out of this city! He'd been helped by a twist of fate making the guards lose their focus for a slight second when taking him outside and he wasn't going to get caught again simply because someone had managed to warn the spargan king about his escape.

The masters would help him, he was certain of that.

They'd made him a leader and they'd entrusted him with missions which he'd carried out successfully.

_I need your help, anything that could help! _he called out mentally as he'd been taught by the masters, hoping he'd done it right and that they'd hear him.

Karidi halted her leaper and got out of the saddle when the marauder suddenly stopped running.

She had her gun up and ready in the wink of an eye. She aimed it towards him in the very moment that Sig got off his leaper as well, and pointed the now loaded peacemaker at the marauder.

"Give it up, marauder. You're surrounded," Karidi calmly exclaimed as she took a step closer.

Dart slowly motioned his hands upwards, praying with every cell in his body that his call for help would be harkened to.

"Easy, toots! I was just testing your security for a bit. Seems a bit weak, don't ya' think?" he said leisurely and gave her a wink of his eye to tease her.

Karidi, however, didn't change her expression at this, but simply kept looking at him with a focused stare, making sure she wouldn't lose her aim.

Sig took another step towards Dart and gave Karidi a sign to get the marauder in handcuffs.

Just as the commander lowered her gun, a loud, shrilling shriek was heard from the other side of the wall, shortly followed by a heavy impact on the gate, making the ground quake beneath their feet.

"Metalheads!" someone called out from the watchtower and soon the alarm was sounding through the city as the second hit came.

For some reason no one had noticed the beasts coming before it was too late.

Karidi turned her head to the gate, and Dart made his move, knowing he wouldn't get a second chance.

With a quick step to the side he spun on his heel and swung his leg around, hitting Karidi over the back before anyone could stop him or call out a warning.

The commander fell over and landed hard on her forearms as the marauder instantly took to his feet, knowing Sig still had his monster of a gun directed towards him.

Sig didn't waste his time wondering, and pulled the trigger, sending a sparkling flash of purple light at the marauder.

But instead of hitting the running man, the beam of energy was mysteriously redirected and hit the gate full on, creating a crack in the armour.

"What in all the names of the precursors was that?" Karidi coughed as she got back on her feet, aided by Fish, who'd gotten out of her saddle at the very moment she'd seen Karidi fall to the ground.

"The bastard's being protected," Sig muttered and started to run after Dart, closely followed by two men from the guard that'd been posted by the wall.

"Protected?" Karidi echoed him, not quite sure what to think about the statement. "How? By whom?" But she didn't get an answer as Sig had already gotten too far away to hear her.

Keira shook her head. Something wasn't right about this. She had an awkward sense of déjà vu, but for what reason, she couldn't understand.

Suddenly the gate was hit for the third time, and now the hit was followed by a much unpleasant sound of giving metal and cracking stone.

A hole was created in the gate and now the sound of fire arms was heard from outside, telling about the wastelanders trying to force back the attack from outside the walls.

But the main target, the marauder, wasn't bothered by this.

Instead he ran straight towards the gate. Once again it was hit by a powerful blow from the outside and the hole was torn up just enough for one man to get through.

Before any of the men following him managed to get to him, Dart went for the opening and jumped through.

"No!" Sig called out in frustration as he saw the man getting up on the back of one of the faster metalhead beasts outside the gate, getting away from the scene without further hindrance.

As if given a silent command, the three big wasteland metalheads that had been ramming the wall turned and ran away from the scene only a few minutes later, causing the spargans fighting them to cheer, unknowing they'd lost a prisoner.

-----


	25. A hidden chamber

"Are we there yet?"

Daxter looked anxiously around himself as he walked not more than one step away from Jak, holding on to his belt as if not to lose him.

Jak looked at him over his shoulder and sighed.

"Seriously, Dax, I won't disappear if you let go of me."

Daxter pouted and put up a stubborn face.

"And seriously, Jak, have you considered the possibilety that _I_ might disappear if I do," he said in a childish voice.

"Come on, stop whining," Jak muttered with a slight smile on his lips. "According to the map, we're going to get to the big hall any moment now."

"Uh-huh," Daxter snorted disbelievingly. "That's the same map that didn't say anything about a death trap some mile or so further back in this corridor, or have ya' already forgotten about nearly getting killed ?"

Jak didn't answer.

He'd been keeping an eye open for any sign of more traps ever since then, but they hadn't come across any more traps at all, which only made him look even harder.

Relaxing at the wrong moment could have them both killed and he knew that.

As the corridor made a sharp turn, Jak suddenly heard a whistling sound, like that of a strong wind forcing itself through a small hole.

Almost instinctively he ducked down, putting a hand onto Daxter's arm to force him down with him.

One second later a large number of glittering darts rushed through the air and hit the stone wall behind them, digging into the hard material as if it had been but a mere cardboard display, at just about the height where their heads would've been, had they not ducked.

Daxter looked up at the needle-like objects in the wall and swallowed hard.

"As I was saying; that map is going to get us killed before we get to the spot."

Jak ignored his comment.

Instead he examined the floor for the mechanism that had set off the darts.

As he found a loose stone sticking up about one centimetre from the rest of the floor, Jak reached out his hand towards it.

At the last moment he stopped himself and turned on his head so he could see Daxter.

"Stay down for a little while longer, ok?"

Then he pushed down the loose stone.

The whistle was heard once again and not long after it, the darts followed, sticking themselves onto the same wall as the previous ones, only a little bit further down this time.

"Interesting..." Jak hummed at this and got back up on his feet.

"Is it safe to get back up now, or should I simply go on keeping my head down for the rest of this trip?" Daxter asked in a loud whisper from the floor.

Jak laughed slightly at the sight of him trying to stay as close to the floor as possible, his face pressed down on the stone he laid upon and his hands clasped together on top of it.

"It's all right, Dax," he assured him and helped him to get back up. "Just don't trip on the loose stone, or you'll set off the trap again."

"Alrighty then. Just paint it brightly red and I'll make sure to avoid it next time we're in the neighbourhood," Daxter said dryly.

He got back up on his feet, looking suspiciously at his surroundings, as if the very shadows created by the alien red light from the signs on the wall would attack him, if he made one wrong movement.

They didn't get far before Jak suddenly stopped again.

"What now? Is your Jak-sense tingling or something?" Daxter commented, but Jak just hushed at him.

They stood in silence for what seemed like several minutes.

Daxter could feel his skin prickle with the feeling of discomfort, having to endure the silence in these strange and dark surroundings.

The red glow from the walls almost called out for someone to make a sound unless they wanted an unpleasant surprise.

Just before Daxter was about to lose his patience, Jak finally broke the silence.

"We're not alone."

Daxter hick-upped and swung around to see if there was someone behind them, but as he didn't see anyone, he turned back around to face Jak.

"Very funny, buddy..."

"I'm serious Dax. I can sense it. It's the eco... Metalheads."

This made Daxter nervously look back over his shoulder.

"But, where are they? And why, but mostly, _how_ can they be _here_? "

Jak shrugged silently, being just as confused as his friend.

"We'll have to hurry. I'm not sure how much ammo I've got for the morph gun and I can't tell how many of them are coming. I just know that it's metalheads. And they're getting closer."

"So where's the friggin' hall?" Daxter whispered with a strained voice and tried to see if it was visible anywhere close, an opening they'd somehow missed.

Jak once more pulled out the map to look at it and a wrinkle appeared in his forehead as he studied the faintly glowing screen.

"That's odd..."

"What is?" Daxter asked and tried to look over his shoulder to see the map for himself.

"The door should be right in front of us."

They both looked up simultaneously and stared into a wall, knowing it was the very location where the map showed an opening.

"Great, we're lost!" Daxter exclaimed. "Let's just head back to the others and think up something else."

Jak didn't answer to this.

Instead he put the map away and walked up to the wall.

He studied the glowing signs on it with a focused expression in his face, before he slowly reached out his hand towards the wall.

"Jak, come on, what're ya' doing?" Daxter whined, but stayed at the same spot, not wanting to accidentally step on something trigging another trap.

Then Jak's hand went right through the wall.

Both of them gaped at what they saw and Jak instantly pulled his hand back and looked at it to make sure it was intact.

"Holy precursors, what did ya' do?" Daxter asked him and took the few steps keeping them apart, looking from Jak to the wall and back again.

"It looks solid enough to me," he said as he checked the wall again. "What did ya' do?"

Jak shook his head.

"I don't know," Jak answered in a perplexed manner, the surprise clearly showing in his face.

"I just figured I could make something happen if I touched the signs again, like when I made them glow. I never thought my hand would go right through the wall!"

Daxter stepped closer to the wall and stared at it as he tried to figure out where it became an illusion.

As this gave no result, he stretched out his own hand, and felt solid stone under his palm.

"I don't get it. What is it with you and these places?"

"Maybe you should try a little bit to the side?" Jak suggested and Daxter sighed as he did so.

As his hand hit nothing but air, Daxter suddenly fell through what looked to be a solid wall.

"Whaaa???" he shouted out before he hit the ground. "Ouch!"

Jak quickly stepped through and looked down at him with a glimmer of a smile on his lips.

Daxter grimaced as he looked up at him.

"Not...funny..." he muttered.

"Ah, come on, you would have laughed if it had been someone else," Jak pointed out as he got him back on his feet.

"True, but that's different. It's not fun when it's happening to _me_."

Jak only smiled at this and turned around to look at where they'd gotten.

He could feel his chin dropping slowly as his eyes slowly adjusted to the slightly darker environment.

From the shadows he could make out the shapes of the great hall spreading out in front of them.

"Dax, I think we've found the place..." Jak managed to mumble.

Daxter didn't answer, instead he stepped up beside him and looked at the scenery in a moment of awe.

The ceiling was too far off into the darkness above to be seen, as was the far end of the room, but in the faint light coming from the transparent "wall" behind them, he could see the shadowy shapes of great pillars shaped out as enormous statues of religious background.

Images of the precursors, the way they had wanted to be remembered by their worshippers, as supreme beings of perfected features, gazed down with empty eyes of polished stone at Jak and Daxter from high above.

Looking up, they could see three rows of open stone floors, all of them without anything connecting them but thin pipes of orange precursor metal running from the floor and up to the far off ceiling on one side, and the stone walls of the hall on the other.

The middle of the room was filled with a pool of dark water, glittering faintly from some hidden source of light.

At the centre of this pool stood four precursor statues with their backs to one another, arms stretched upwards to hold a platform of large proportions from which a number of thick ropes hung down, probably being the remains of rope bridges from the upper floors of the room, originally leading across the open space above the water and out to the platform in the middle.

Daxter whistled a low tune.

"Let me guess," he said slowly as he looked at the majestic statues in the centre of the room, "whatever it is that we're here to get, it's placed on that platform over there at the 'off limits'-zone, right?"

"You're probably right about that," Jak agreed and tried to figure out just how they'd get up there.

"Well, I guess it's a pretty safe stash, right? Why move the thing? We can simply get out of here and leave it be, preferably before the big drooly metals finds us and decide to have a snack."

Daxter started to turn around to leave, but Jak stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

"We have to get this weapon before they do, and believe me Dax, they'll find a way to get it."

"Yeah, but how tha' heck d' ya' suppose we get up there?" Daxter objected and gestured towards the platform with flailing hands.

"If there's a will, there's a way. We've managed worse, right?" Jak said and walked up to one of the pipes connecting the floors above.

"Don't remind me, all right? Besides, back then I was small and fuzzy and could climb anything. Do I have to remind ya' I don't have paws or claws anymore?"

Jak grabbed a hold of the pipe and swiftly hiked himself up to the second floor. He turned around and looked at Daxter.

"Come on now, it wasn't that hard. Like climbing a tree back home."

Daxter walked up to the pipe and looked up at his friend with doubt oozing from his very being.

"I don't know. I haven't climbed a tree since pre-fuzz. And ya' can't compare me with ya' self. I mean, you've had all these years of building muscles while all I had to do was run around and..."

"Stop whining and just give it a try already. We haven't got all day, Dax."

Daxter shut his mouth and harrumphed at the comment, but never the less he grabbed the pipe. Jak had to reach down and pull him up half way, but at least he got up to the second floor.

"Geez," he exhaled heavily and avoided to look down as Jak got to the task of getting up to the next floor. "How many floors do ya' think we'll have to climb?"

Jak stopped as he got to the third floor and stepped down at the stone floor to look out towards the statues holding up the platform.

"I'd say it's best if we get all the way up to the fourth floor."

"Figures..." Daxter mumbled as he grabbed the pipe again and climbed as far as he could before Jak could reach him and help him the rest of the way.

They repeated the procedure one more time and as they both sat down on their heels to rest for a moment, they directed their eyes towards the platform, which was still a little bit higher up than they were.

"Seriously, Jak, my arms hurt. And there's no way we'll be able to get across this without some sort of bridge."

"Or wings..." Jak suggested silently.

Daxter looked at him as if he'd gone mad.

"Are you crazy? There's no way you're using up what light eco you have left on a flight of that distance! There have to be other ways around this!"

"Like what?"

Daxter bit his lower lip in concentration as he looked around to find a solution to their problem and was about to give up, when his eyes caught a glimmer from something close to the wall a few steps away.

He rose to his feet and got over to the spot and Jak followed him curiously.

As Daxter bent down to look at what had glimmered, he realised he was looking at a very small version of an eco-vent, placed on the wall.

"Jak! Look at this! It's..."

"Blue eco," Jak cut in and stepped closer. As he touched the vent, a surge of energy rushed through his veins and raised his heartbeat somewhat, making his skin prickle with an electric buzz.

"But why's it here?" Daxter continued his wondering. " I mean, what's the use? You can hardly run up there, no matter how fast you are."

Jak noticed a marking on the pipe closest to them and recognised it from long ago.

Without thinking about it further, he reached out, touched the marking and let out the surge of energy he'd collected from the blue eco, and the marking began to glow.

"Hey, what the..." Daxter started saying as he turned around and saw what was happening.

A dull tune sounding from the pipe cut him short.

Jak looked at him with new eagerness in his eyes.

"My guess is we'll have to find more of these vents and markings, and we better do it fast."

"Yeah, you load up and take on the far end and I'll try to get as many as I can from this end then," Daxter said slowly, trying to point out his incapability of making any use of the eco.

Jak didn't listen though, he just touched the vent once more and filled his body with the energy needed and took off at high speed, stopping at every pipe, trying to find a marking or a vent. Three pipes away, he called for Daxter and waited for him to get to the spot.

"This marking is for red eco," Daxter noted as he got to him.

"Yeah, but where's the vent?" Jak asked and now Daxter noticed the lack of a vent glowing red. Instead the vent on the wall was giving off a light of yellow eco.

"Now this makes it trickier... I thought it was a little too easy," Daxter mumbled as he tried to figure out what to do.

"You stay here, and I'll go round to find either the red vent or the yellow marking."

Daxter didn't have time to object before Jak set off.

"I hate it when he does that..." he said to himself and sat down with his back against the wall to wait.

About two minutes later another humming tune was heard somewhere on the opposite side of where he was, and not long after Jak was back with him, sweating from the strain and panting hard after running at high speed for such a long time.

"Jak, ya' ok? Ya' don't look too well, buddy..."

"I'm fine," Jak objected and pushed away Daxter's hand as he reached out to give him some support to stand. "I'm just not used to this anymore. It's a long time since I last did this, you know."

"Yeah, whatever, and I'm your grandma'. Jak, don't push yourself like this! I bet it's your wounds making you weak. You're still healing up!"

"Don't bother Dax, I'm fine."

He reached out for the marking on the pipe and let out the red eco he'd collected, and the pipe gave off a tune similar to the other two.

"That's three. One to go."

"Jak..."

Jak didn't stay to listen.

He charged up with the yellow eco and took off, stopping only to refill the blue eco at the first vent they'd found.

Soon after, a fourth tune was heard and now four beams of light in the colours of the different ecos activated, shone from the pipes and towards the platform.

A vibration travelled through the stone of the floor Daxter sat on and he quickly got up on his feet as the pipes slowly started to bend towards the platform.

Jak was back by his side before he had the time to draw his breath and call for him.

"What's happening?" Daxter asked as he watched the pipes bending.

"My guess is that it's a way to get across," Jak said slowly.

As the movement stopped, the markings on the pipes, as well as the light at their tops, vanished, leaving the room in a sudden lack of light.

"I wish I'd packed down the hover board," Jak grunted as he got up on the pipe closest to them."

"Jak, ya' sure about this?"

"Not really, but it's our only option. You stay here and I'll be back in a moment or two."

"Be careful!" Dax called out as Jak climbed out on the thin pipe, using both hands and feet to get forward without risking to slip.

As he got to the platform a nervous climb later, Jak rested for a moment at the edge of it, so that he'd be able to walk upright without falling over the very moment he got up.

He felt like he'd been crushed and mangled by giant hands and then put back together in the wrong order.

The blue eco had taken more tribute on his body than expected, and he could feel something like bruising on the inside of his muscles spread throughout his legs. He hadn't lied to Daxter; it _had_ been too long since last time he'd used the blue eco, but that wasn't the only reason for him to be this worn down by it.

_"One man can only take so much abuse before his body starts to break from it."_

Samos' words suddenly appeared out of his memory as Jak remembered a lesson given way back when his life hadn't been this complicated.

Jak guessed he'd just about reached his limit and that his body was finally breaking down. But he wasn't going to tell anyone about it yet, especially not Daxter.

He didn't want him to worry.

As soon as he'd steadied himself enough, Jak got up on his feet and looked at what he had in front of him.

In the middle of the platform there was a large crystal hovering right above a huge engraving in the floor; showing the mark of Mar. Inside the crystal shimmering tails of light in the colour of all the ecos mingled in a stream of ever shifting movement.

Jak could feel a premonition of danger as he got closer to the centre of the platform and the only thing making him go on was a slight tingle of curiosity.

If the weapon hidden here was so dangerous, what exactly did it do?

The moment Jak's feet touched the mark on the floor, the crystal started to spin and the tails of light inside it increased their strength, making the crystal shine brightly as it moved.

Jak didn't like the feeling he got as he slowly stepped closer.

_"What am I supposed to do?"_ he thought as a slight panic started to rise inside of him.

Soon after he'd thought this, the crystal suddenly stopped spinning and lowered itself down on the floor.

As it came in contact with the stone of the platform, an almost inaudible clicking sound was picked up by Jak's ears and as he watched, the crystal slowly opened itself, each piece melting away into thin air as it did, leaving only a previously hidden object hovering in midair for him to grasp.

It was small.

Jak had to blink to check if he was seeing right.

There it was; the supposed to be most dangerous weapon ever created by the precursors.

Jak took the remaining steps and gently retrieved the object floating in the air before him.

The small octagonal jewel wrapped in precursor metal fitted in the palm of his hand.

Still doubting this could be what he was looking for, Jak put the stone in his backpack and returned to the edge of the platform to get back down to Daxter, who was waiting nervously at the fourth floor where he'd left him.

"Ya' got it?" Daxter called out the moment he spotted him.

Jak showed him thumbs up and got himself ready to start the down climb, when suddenly a movement some way to the right of Daxter caught his eye.

He looked at it again and realised what it was the very moment he recognised the yellow spark giving away the whereabouts of the otherwise invisible creature.

In an instant, his heart sank in his chest.

"Dax, run! Metalheads!" he called out as a panicking sense of urgency shot through his nervous system.

-----


	26. Unexpected changes

_Sorry once again for he delay. Things have been buisy lately with school and work, but I will keep on writing and updating, don't you worry. ;) Here's a fresh chapter for you all to enjoy! Love/ Silverspegel_

_Oh, and about the title of the chapter... I made a mistake in the naming of the last chapter last time, but I've changed the names now, so this is not an edit of the former chapter. In case you wondered. ^^_

* * *

Daxter instantly swirled to the side as he turned to look behind him.

Spotting the yellow glimmer, he let out a meak yelping sound and stumbled backwards, away from the lurking beasts.

Noticing they'd been discovered, one of the metalheads shrieked; a shrill sound reminding of metal scraping against glass, making Daxter grit his teeth from the pain it produced in the very bone of his skull.

Scrambling to his feet after almost tripping over, Daxter searched his surroundings in hope of finding a way to dodge the beasts coming towards him.

Realising his only way to escape was to get down from the current floor, didn't exactly cheer him up though.

Meanwhile, Jak forced his partly paralysed limbs into action. With adrenaline suddenly rushing through him, he didn't waste one more second on standing still on the platform.

Without a thought of what would happen if he should fall, Jak leaped onto the pipe closest to him and using his weight and the leaning of the smooth metal beneath him, he slid downwards in accelerating speed, locking his eyes to the yellow shimmer of the skull gem on the metalhead closest to Daxter.

Suddenly it was as if a deeply buried instinct came alive inside of him as his fears and rage blended into a unity within his mind.

His sense of smell got keener, his sight gradually got sharper along with his hearing.

He knew the signs of transformation coming forth, but he didn't stop it.

Instead he urged it on.

A crackling sound of electricity filled the air as he rushed downwards.

Fangs, horns and claws grew rapidly as his morphing vision cleared the dusk in the room, giving anything with a pulse a sharp contour in contrast to the otherwise blurry surroundings.

Jak waited until the right moment, then pushed himself upwards and into the air, sending him flying towards the metalhead he'd targeted with a growl leaving his lips.

He wanted the enemy's blood to flow.

He wanted to get rid of the danger.

The moment he crashed into the metalhead, it became partly visible as they both tumbled into the stone wall with the bone-cracking force caused by Jak's speed at the moment of impact.

Jak was all instinct and rage as he could taste the beast's dark eco saturated blood on his tongue and let the energy fill him up from inside, crackling purple lightning travelling across his pale white skin and making his silvery hair stand on all ends.

Half a moment later he released the collected surges of eco in one big blow to the gut of the beast he was on top of, creating a quake in the stone and a vacuum that for a few seconds quenched all sound, before the purple light faded.

Panting from the effort, Jak looked at the spot where only a few seconds earlier he'd been facing a group of four or five metalheads in invisibility cloaking.

There was nothing left of them now, but the glowing yellow gems and the pools of dark eco that was quickly moving towards him, only to become a part of his system the very moment it touched him.

He grinned.

The enemy was terminated for now and the danger no longer present.

He could sense others coming closer from underneath him, but they were still too far off to be a problem.

A barely audible gasp from behind his back made Jak turn around.

Daxter blinked hard and shook himself as if he was still a fuzzy animal, desperately trying to get rid of the panicking fear in the same manner as he would with water sticking to his fur.

Having been a small animal for so long had left it's traces, Jak noted with a sting of sorrow touching his upset mind.

"I didn't think you still had any of that stuff left in ya', pal. But it sure came in handy, huh?" Daxter said in a calm manner, his voice efficiently contradicting his almost ghostlike complexion coming of his recent distress. A nervous smile stretched his thin lips as he looked at Jak.

Warmth was creeping into Jak's skin again as the monster retreated into his inner being without even the slightest objection.

Something was different.

His every limb was shaking from exhaustion as he turned back to normal, but he could still feel his dark side at the core of his mind; dormant, but ready to come out as soon as it was needed.

Jak knew he shouldn't even have been able to transform properly, let alone that fast; for that he had had too little dark eco left in him.

And still, he had transformed.

For a moment, Jak felt a fear of having lost control of things and his world started to tilt.

A hand suddenly steadied him with a grip on his arm and Jak looked up to meet Daxter's worried face.

"You're not looking too well, buddy. Ya' sure you're alright?"

Jak shook his head silently.

He couldn't afford being weak at a moment like this, when metalheads were flocking closer by the minute and with the two of them still being trapped underground.

"We have to get out of here. More of them are on their way," he said with a voice sounding more hollow and drained than expected.

"Ya' can't fight more of them like this, so which way do ya' suggest we take; the suicidal one or the slightly less lethal? Your choice, but make it quick!" Daxter commented as he nervously looked about them.

Jak took a deep breath, shook off Daxter's supporting hands and walked up to one of the pipes.

"Come on, Dax. Let's get going."

He didn't wait for an answer before he took a hold of the pipe and lowered himself down for a bit, then waited for Daxter to follow.

As soon as his friend had gripped the pipe and started to slowly slide downwards on it, Jak loosened his own grip on the metal and rushed towards the ground, where he waited for Daxter to join him.

"Now, that wasn't so bad, was it?" Jak said and managed a faint smile as Daxter stumbled away from the pipe once he was back down on the ground.

"Nah, but I wouldn't do it again," Daxter answered and started to walk towards the hidden door they'd both entered through earlier. "Let's get going then, big guy. Don't wanna' linger and become chewing bones, right?"

Jak followed in silence, still pondering over the weirdness considering his recent transformation, but he didn't get far in his trail of thoughts before he sensed a change in the atmosphere in front of them.

"Dax!"

As expected, the redhead turned around instantly, worry written in his face as he looked at him.

"What's the matter?"

Jak reached behind his back and in one swift and well oiled movement he took out his morph gun and loaded it.

"Metalheads," he answered as he secured the gun with a clicking sound and handed it over to Daxter. "You know how to use it, right?"

Daxter looked from the gun to Jak with a doubting and puzzled expression.

"Yeah, but... Why should I have the gun? I mean, you're the pro here..."

"You're getting the gun, because I can deal with those things without it and you can't."

Daxter didn't object to this fact, but he still didn't like the thought of it.

A whistling sound was suddenly heard from the corridor outside the room and the sound of small projectiles shooting through the air followed within an instant.

The familiar shriek of a metalhead was heard and a large grunt stumbled through the entrance, gleaming metal needles sticking out from all over its body as a result of triggering the trap Jak and Daxter had managed to avoid earlier.

After taking a half-effort leap towards them, the beast fell down and disintegrated into a puddle of dark purple and black fluid.

"Whoa, a metal porcupine served up hot and slimy!" Daxter exclaimed and backed away a few steps.

"Get ready!" Jak warned him and leapt forward to quickly absorb the dark substance left by the dead monster, thinking it best to take what help he could get to stay on his feet throughout the upcoming fight.

Another set of shrieks was heard as they both got closer to the doorway.

Soon enough another grunt came towards them, seemingly untouched by the trap that had taken its predecessor by surprise.

Jak didn't even think.

He rushed forward, feeling the surge of darkness crackle around his fists as he moved.

Taking aim, he pushed upwards in a summersault and crashed down, crackling fists first, into the grunt's skull, breaking it with a single blow and landed only a second before the defeated beast.

More eco flowed into his system and his aching muscles and he could feel the darkness turn and shift, eager to be let out, but never the less staying put when Jak told it to.

Jak looked at his hands as the purple flashes faded.

He hadn't transformed, and still he had been able to use the eco's stregnth.

Something strange was happening to him, but he couldn't figure out why or how.

"Jak! Come on! Let's get out of here!" Daxter called to him as he ran past and Jak wasn't late to follow.

Just as they stepped through the hidden opening and into the corridor still lit up by the red markings on the walls, Daxter was thrown backwards, crashing into Jak who fell onto his back as they collided.

Another grunt had made its way through and was now growling with pleasure at seeing its prey down on the ground.

"Dax! Are you alright?" Jak asked worriedly as he tried to get up and help his friend to do so as well.

"Remind me never to walk in the front line again, will ya'?" Daxter answered dizzily.

"You just take care of the small-fry and I'll try to get rid of the big ones then, ok?" Jak said as he stood up to face the grunt.

"Small-fry? What small..."

Daxter didn't even have time to finish this sentence before a stinger came rushing towards them from the opposite direction of the grunt.

With a more or less reflex movement, he fired the gun and a red bullet blew up the small, but deadly creature as it made contact with its metallic bone shell.

Within a second the world turned into a blur of gunshots echoing off the walls, sudden movements in the gloomy red light and the roar of the metalheads coming at them from what seemed like all directions.

Jak didn't know when he changed, only that he did and that he let the dark one take the control for the moment.

Dark body fluids sprayed over his skin, covering his pale face for a few seconds, before it seeped in.

His arms moved as if controlled by someone else; claws ripping apart anything they touched, his horns piercing the muscles of beasts reaching out to get at him from behind and fangs scratching the skin of limbs coming too close.

But Jak was getting tired, even despite the steady increase of dark eco in his body as the metalheads went down one after the other.

He also figured that the ammunition for the morph gun soon would be used up.

_"We'll never make it out of here like this,"_ Jak thought as he slashed open another throat. There had to be a way to get through without fighting until they dropped.

"Jak! I'm out of bullets!" Daxter, as predicted, called out in a panicking voice only a few seconds later and started to use the gun as a beating stick instead. "There are too many of them!"

Jak roared out loud as he started summoning the energy of the dark eco residing in him.

He had to buy them some time, even if it meant for him to spend almost his entire energy source.

The grunts closest to him suddenly started to back away, sensing the increasing tension in the air surrounding him.

The stingers turned the other way completely.

In the midst of the crackling lighting building up around him, Jak realised he had to warn Daxter or he'd get hit by the full force of the blow as well as the metalheads.

He reached out into the tangled mind of the dark being that held his body and managed to regain some part of the control.

"Dax!" he grunted; the voice sharp and raspy, coming from a mouth that was more used to growls and roars. "Run!"

Daxter didn't waste any time objecting, knowing it was useless, and ran for cover.

He barely made it through the hidden doorway before the dark blast was released.

Having been thrown down on his stomach, Daxter pushed himself back up on his feet as soon as the vibration created in the air died away.

With an aching worry in his chest he rushed through the opening to make sure his friend was still in one piece.

As he entered the corridor once more, he noticed deep cracks in the stone walls, showing the force invoked by the blast.

Jak was barley standing.

He was no longer a pale white monster, but a trembling man forcing himself not to heed the laws of gravity working on his knees.

Without a word Daxter rushed to him and put an arm around his back for support as he laid one of Jak's own arms around the back of his neck. In that manner he managed to keep him upright as they started to move forward.

"Now, _that_ was stupid, but I think it worked," Daxter said in a hushed voice after a few steps.

Jak only grunted a confirmation that he'd heard him.

"Ya' really shouldn't have put that much into it though, you're half dead, man!" Daxter continued in a loud whisper, letting his concern overgrow his fear of the metalheads returning.

The red light coming from the signs on the walls was slowly starting to fade, creating an eerie atmosphere in the corridor as it grew darker.

The absence of sound was starting to make Daxter's skin crawl.

His collected memory of experiences of the kind was telling him it was a certain sign of something dangerous being about to happen.

"Jak... I don't like this. It's too quiet..." Daxter mumbled after having walked on for a few more minutes in silence. "Where did those metalheads come from anyway?"

"Don't know," Jak answered in a slurring manner, not having any energy left in him to do anything but move his legs.

Daxter looked at him with a troubled expression growing in his face.

"Ya' really don't look well, big guy. Don't ya' have any of the light stuff left, to heal up a bit?"

Jak opened his eyes wide and felt pretty dumb having forgotten about this solution.

He reached down into his reserves and found the pulsating light he was searching for.

A sudden burst of warmth filled his veins as the bluish light radiated from his skin in the completion of the transformation needed to activate the healing.

Daxter stepped to the side in a quick motion, not wanting to be in the way.

One moment later, Jak was once more back to normal and the signs of weariness had left him for the time being.

"Ya' actually hadn't thought of that, had ya'?" Daxter asked wittingly as Jak scratched the back of his head in an attempt to hide his feelings of embarrassment.

"No," he said honestly and started walking again with Daxter only half a step behind him.

"Geez, and here I was thinking you were a smart guy..." Daxter commented in a try to ease the tension he was still feeling towards the silence of the corridor.

Jak didn't say anything.

He had come to wonder about what had just happened.

Once again, the change had been instant.

He had but thought what he wanted to do and it had happened. He'd hardly even been aware of it until it was already done.

Usually he had to focus harder and concentrate on the wanted action.

Suddenly he remembered the object he'd retrieved at the platform.

Reaching back, he got the jewel out of the backpack and looked at it while trying to figure out just what it could do.

Daxter made big eyes at the thing in his hand.

"Wow, what's that?" he asked and tried his best to keep the same speed as Jak while they walked on.

"This is what I found up there," Jak said slowly. "I think it's a part of that weapon-thing."

"Really?" Daxter said doubtingly. "Looks like a stone to me. A pretty stone, but still a stone."

Jak didn't argue with him.

He knew the jewel had to have a part in what was happening to him: the way he could suddenly use the ecos more efficiently and by sheer power of will, instead of a specified concentration.

The glimmer of the different ecos inside of the prism only made him more certain this was the deal, but he still didn't understand how the thing could work without him knowing how to use it, without him being aware of using it when he did.

--------


	27. Dark betrayal

_This one's a treat for all of you who likes reading about the bad guys being really bad... ^^ I loved writing this, I have to admit. I might just be a little bit sadistic..._

* * *

_"You've disappointed us."_

It was a state of fact, nothing to argue about.

"I know, and I've been trying my best to make it up to ya' both, but it ain't all too easy while sitting barred up like that," he said and tried not to make it sound like an objection.

He'd been brought to the masters quickly; the metalhead hybrids they'd bred had proved to be more than just muscular beasts for fighting. They were fast too.

The trip that by car would have taken him about three days had been done in barely three hours, using a newly reactivated teleport gate hidden in an underground tunnel some way off from Spargus' battered gates.

Now, he was standing in front of them, still a little shaken by changing the constant movement in high speed to the sudden stillness of the dark cave.

A swift movement revealed the glimmer of something sharp sweeping past him in the darkness, making him flinch.

_"Silence!"_

The silent roar hurt in his head, but he managed to keep his hands to his sides instead of covering his ears, which he knew would be meaningless anyway.

_"We gave you so much."_

_"We trusted you."_

_"We gave you power."_

_"We let you use our precious soldiers for your own means."_

_"We even look away as you slaughtered them to gain your own men's trust."_

_"And how do you repay us?"_

_"By getting caught..."_

_"Losing hold of the very one thing you'd done perfectly good..."_

_"Letting him go!"_

The argument was fast and heated, the two voices mingling together so that it became hard to tell them apart.

"Look, I'm really sorry 'bout that, but I did get him down in the catacombs, that's gotta' be worth something, right?"

He was trying to grasp what tiny chances he still had to keep his head and body connected a little while longer.

The darkness in front of him seemed to be alive: a deity taking shape within the absence of light.

His masters moved slowly in its shelter, eyes gleaming like four pale yellow jewels, ever moving on the canvas of shadows surrounding them and yet, never leaving him.

_"He can easily escape from that trap, I'm sure..."_ one of them said slowly after pondering this for a moment of silence.

_"Yes, of course he_ could,_ dear. There's always a risk for that. But the bug of a marauder has a point,"_ the other countered with a smile in the voice._ "At the moment, he is in our hands, he's still under ground."_

_"But he's got the weapon! If he had not heard of the place, he wouldn't have found it before us!"_

A shudder of fear went quickly through Dart's spine as he heard this. If they decided he'd accidently aided their enemy, he could just as well kiss his luck, and life, goodbye.

_"Maybe, maybe not."_

There was a short pause.

_"What are you saying, my dear?"_

_"We wouldn't have been able to get it out of there without him unlocking the safe keep. Our darling monsters could never have even touched it, let alone bring it here for us to open. And we might never have been able to open it without destroying something of importance. _He_ on the other hand, apparently managed to open it. He surprised us once, love, and he did surprise us again. It seems we needed him."_

_"But we don't need him anymore, do we now?"_

A laughter of no sound slowly rose in the silent darkness, sending shivers over the marauder's skin.

"Let me know if there's anything I can do..." he said slowly, his almost unperceivable whisper sounding as sharp and loud as a metalhead shriek in the compact silence present in the velvety darkness.

The masters turned once more towards him, the laughter dying slowly, fading into awkward chuckles.

_"Yes..."_

_"You have served us well this far, despite your little mishap, and you might actually be useful yet..."_

_"We need the weapon to be brought to us..."_

_"...but he won't bring it to us..."_

_"...unless he has no choice but to do so..."_

A memory suddenly appeared from the back of his mind and he hung on to it, tried to take out the details until he was sure it was what he had been looking for.

"If I may, my masters, I think I know something that could be of use in this."

The glowing eyes narrowed slightly.

_"Please, humour us and we will judge whether or not it is worth anything at all,"_ one of them said, the silky voice reminding him of a snake acting noble towards its prey.

"While I had him all tied up in the camp, I noticed something; he's got this weakness. He's got this friend he's very protective of, a young redhead boy. He'll do just about anything to protect him, I bet. Now, if ya' want him to bring ya' this weapon, then the easiest way would be to lure him here for you to finish him off. Luring craves bait and that bait would be..."

_"...his darling friend, I presume..."_ one of the dark ones filled in, not even hiding the pleasure felt in forming this plan.

"You said it, your highness. Get the boy and ya' get the guy. Pretty simple, if it works."

_"No harm in trying it out,"_ the other agreed.

_"Now, Dart, you have been helpful, no doubt. And you should get the reward promised, right?"_

"If you please."

_"Oh, we please..."_ they answered him in unison.

A sharp pain pierced his chest and as he looked down he could see the gleaming of a metallic bone structure being buried deep inside him and as he watched, his blood started to trickle down on the ground and slowly covered the sword-like object.

"But..."

He couldn't get it.

He'd done everything they'd asked him to do, even more.

It was he who'd caught their most wanted enemy, not that he could see why they feared the young man, but still, he had.

He'd given them a good reason to keep him alive by showing himself useful.

The sharp object stuck in his chest turned somewhat and he grit his teeth at the pain it caused, but forced himself not to scream, not to give in to the treacherous beings he'd worshipped for the sake of their seemingly unlimited godlike powers.

As he was lifted up into the air, hanging from the thing in his chest, he could see that what pierced him was the tip of a jointed black tail, not unlike the one seen on stingers.

"What...are you...?" he managed to cough out as he tried to breathe through his severed lungs.

A laughter, this time heard loud and clear, echoed off the cave walls.

A woman's laughter.

"Did you really think that supreme beings like the ones we ourselves have become, would care even the slightest about keeping promises to bugs like you?" the raspy voice of a man was carried out from somewhere within the shadows.

The tail moved, the wound was opened even more, but Dart was still stuck and he was having trouble staying conscious.

"You...f-freaks!" he blurted out, spitting bloody froth in the process.

A body was shown, someone stepping out from the shelter of the shadows, revealing the curvaceous body of a dark-skinned woman.

The gleaming white hair that was billowing out from behind her back as she moved almost touched the floor, giving her an overall impression of being danger and lust personified.

Her glowing yellow eyes were directed towards him and she smiled as his blood got in her face.

"We thank you most dearly for your services; you've been of use to us creatures of the night. I only pity you for being so stupid as to trust us," she said in a soft cooing voice, as if talking to a wounded pet.

As she showed herself entirely, Dart could see the tail impaling him actually belonged to the woman talking.

"We need this weapon," the man said slowly, "and you've helped us get it within our reach; for that we are grateful. However, we also need to gather the energy needed to stand up to the squirt who first put us in this forsaken place so long ago..."

The woman's smile widened into a predator's grin.

"Yes..."

_"It was long since we fed..."_

A scream finally erupted from the tortured servant of the dark ones as his masters started to tear him apart, one limb after another.

---------


	28. Making preparations

"That's it! I can't just sit around waiting anymore!"

Keira got up from her chair and headed for the door.

But before she could get out of the room, Karidi stepped in her way, face set in the blank expression of a professional soldier on duty.

Her cold graphite eyes fixed themselves on Keira's face.

"You're not leaving here until you're ordered to do so," she said calmly and crossed her arms over her voluptuous chest.

Frustrated, Keira turned to Sig with a look of indignation in her eyes.

"You can't mean that! We have to do _something_!" she exclaimed angrily.

Sig shook his head apologetically.

"I'm sorry, peaches, but we don't know where they are, what's happening, or if they even need any help at all. At the worst we could complicate things for them by trying to find them down there. We have to trust them to manage this on their own. They've done this sort of mission before and made it out intact, right? Just have a little faith in them."

"But...You _saw_ that, didn't you? You said it yourself, that the darn marauder was being protected by someone, and I have a really bad feeling concerning just who that someone might be, however impossible it might be."

"Really?"

Keira turned to look at the one questioning her.

Jinx was sitting perfectly comfortable in his chair, leaning backwards on its hind legs so that he was on the verge of tipping it over, slowly puffing his cigarette.

"I'm just curious, toots, but just who do you think is behind this invisible force field of sorts, and why?"

"I'm sorry to say this, but I'm actually with the creepy dude in this," Fish said, raising her voice for the first time since they'd gotten back in the room.

The young freckled girl had wanted to get back to the leaper stables, but Sig had insisted on her staying with them. The idea was that she might be able to help them think about things they hadn't noticed themselves when it came to the escape-incident.

So far though, they'd all just been sitting in silence, each one pondering over their own questions and none of them ready to express their theories yet.

The silence and the torture of not knowing for sure what was happening to their friends down in the catacombs, was what finally had made Keira move.

"I... I can't explain this without telling you everything about my own, Jak's and Dax's past, and I just don't have the time or patience to do that. Besides, I really don't see the point in it, 'cause I'm pretty sure you won't believe me anyway," Keira said and sat back down again, her entire posture telling of restlessness and defeat.

"Try us," Jinx said calmly, a glittering in his eye the only thing giving away his interest in the business.

"No," Keira replied and shook her head. "It won't matter anyway. It can't possibly be the ones I'm thinking of... They've been dead and buried for a number of centuries already. The point is that I worry for Jak's and Dax's safety. Whatever it is that this metalhead-controlling enemy of ours is after down there, it can't be anything good and just thinking about my friends trying to get to it before they do..."

Fish wrinkled her forehead in confusion and decided to cut in.

"Wait, 'dead and buried for a number of _centuries_'? Ya' sure ya' using the right words, lady? I thought ya' said these dudes were mixed up with _your_ past, and I'm sorry, but ya' ain't about to make me believe that you're much older than, what, 20 – 25 years?"

Keira sighed heavily as she tried to find the words to explain it all in a way that wouldn't sound like a mad woman's ramblings.

When she realised it was close to impossible to do so, she settled for simplifying.

"Actually, I'm 21, but that's got nothing to do with it," Keira answered and pinched at the bridge of her nose in a try to focus. "Me, the boys and my father, before we got here, we dealt with a pair of sibling dark eco sages. But Jak managed to take care of them, so they reasonably should be out of the picture by now. I really don't know why I thought about them, but there's this feeling I can't get rid of, that tells me they're involved somehow."

Sig was the only one who didn't look confused at this short draft of history.

"Now, let's say it really is like you fear, and those two are the ones behind all this mess," he said slowly while keeping his eyes on Keira, "then what, more precisely, is it that they could do?"

Keira shrugged her shoulders in zealless manner and lowered her eyes to the table.

"I don't know. They were pretty dangerous back then... Only the precursors knows what they'd be like now, _if _they actually survived. They controlled dark eco, to a limit, yes, but still. Seeing as how the metalheads are being manipulated, I just came to think of the possibility they might have something to do with it, or more likely, someone similar to them."

"Wait, lemme' get this straight before I go nuts," Fish interrupted, fixing Keira with her grey eyes from across the table. "Ya' said these dudes were _dark_ eco sages?"

Keira nodded.

"I've never heard of such a thing ever existing! I mean, come on! That stuff's lethal by touch! Ya' can't just go up and make use of it without damaging yourself badly..."

"That's the point!" Keira replied with heat, annoyed with having her sanity being questioned by the young girl. "They _were_ damaged! They got insane with greed and hunger for power! That's why we did our best to stop them!"

"Geez, lady, cool it," Fish commented slowly, putting her hands up in front of her in a defensive gesture. "I was just curious. I really wouldn't want to meet those guys if that stuff's true," she added and turned towards Jinx, who was sitting next to her. "I mean, can ya' imagine just what kind of a freakish pair of monsters they must have been turned into by that stuff..."

"Actually, I can," the bomber hummed and gave Keira and Sig a stern look. "I believe that's what happens to Golden Wonder when he loses his temper. Am I right?"

At this comment, Fish bit her lip as she realised who Jinx meant. She slowly turned back towards Keira who looked away, her face blank from expression.

Sig gave Jinx a single nod.

"Well, that explains some things about him," the blonde noted mumbling and straightened up in his chair, letting its front legs touch the floor again.

"Sorry, I didn't know..." Fish started to apologize to Keira, but the mechanic waved dismissingly towards her.

"Never mind, Fish. You couldn't have known. Not many people does and Jak prefers it that way. He didn't choose this change," she said in a low voice, quoting the very words Jak had used himself all these years ago, when trying to make Keira understand what had been the cause for his personality change during their two years apart after arriving to Haven City.

An awkward silence spread in the room as they all contemplated upon what had been said.

"Now, if we could get back to the problem at hand," Sig said after a few minutes had passed by, "what could be done at the moment? Any suggestions?"

Karidi pursed her lips in thought before she spoke.

"I'm thinking we should try to get more information on this weapon Jak's trying to get out of the catacombs."

In saying this, she turned towards Keira.

"Is there any chance you could contact your father and the others in Haven City and see if they've managed to get some more information on the matter?"

Keira shrugged.

"I don't know, but I could try and take a look at the coms again. If I can locate what's blocking the signals and somehow get past the blocking, it might work. If that can't be done, I'll just have to get back to the city to talk to them, which would take a lot longer."

"Do what you can," Sig said with a supportive nod towards her. He threw her his personal communicator device and with a nod of her own, Keira took the com and left the room to get started.

As soon as Keira had left, Sig turned to Jinx.

"You're supposed to be some sort of an expert on explosives and weaponry, right?"

Jinx lifted an eyebrow, curious as to what his part in all of this would be.

"Well, I don't know 'bout the weaponry part, sire. For that I've got this chick at the rat's old bar back in Haven. But I do consider myself being the best when it comes to making something go 'boom'."

"Good enough to me," Sig replied approvingly and turned towards his commander. "Karidi, I want you to take boom-boy here and show him what we've got in our supplies. Help him gather what he needs to make a good amount of useful explosives."

He turned back towards Jinx, whom by now was smiling at the outlook of his forthcoming mission.

"Do you think you could make something we can use against the metalheads attacking the walls? I'd prefer something efficient enough to get rid of the big ones before they get too close."

Jinx got up on his feet and bowed from his waist in one movement, excitement written in his face as he stepped up to Karidi.

"I'll see what I can do, your highness," he said and then turned to the dark woman. "Lead the way, sugar."

Karidi grimaced at the pet name and considered slapping him silly, but had second thoughts as she caught her king's stern expression.

"Follow me," she said, voice dripping with repressed annoyance as she walked out of the room, closely followed by the blond man.

"So, I guess I'll be goin' back to the stables then..." Fish said and got up from her chair.

"I'm not finished with you yet, puppy," Sig said and gave her a stern look.

The young girl sighed, rolled with her eyes to express her boredom and sat back down.

"I'm stayin' a little longer then. What is it you wanna' say?"

Sig smiled vaguely at her uncaring attitude and sat down opposite of her.

"You were a great help to us today, even though we didn't catch the guy. If it hadn't been for you, we might not even have had a chance to get as close as we did."

Fish looked down at the table, her cheeks turning a bright shade of red as she realised she was being praised.

"Nothing to mention, really," she mumbled silently.

"The reason I wanted to keep you here a little longer wasn't so that you could hide your face as I comment on your actions," Sig said slowly, and Fish instantly looked back up, feeling just a little stupid for having reacted like she did.

"Sorry, sir."

Sig smiled softly and nodded.

"Now, that's better. I understand that you've got quite a talent for handling the leapers, am I right?"

Fish nodded sharply.

"I'm the best there is, if I may say so," she replied and straightened her back.

"Good. I want you to help the stable manager to pick out our strongest and fastest leapers and see to that they get the equipment needed for soldiers to ride them. We are going to need every means of transportation there is to fight off this invasion of metalheads as it seems."

Fish rubbed her chin in thought for a moment; then looked back at the king with a curious look in her eyes.

"I could do that, but, when are they to be ready for use? They can't be saddled and equipped and then just stand and wait for days before they are taken into use, ya' know. Besides, leapers hate getting close to the metalheads. I only know about five or six, ten at the most, that one could actually be able to steer into the battle. It's like forcing mice towards a cat."

Sig smiled approvingly at her comment.

He'd been expecting her to question the directives.

"Then I want you to pick out those leapers you think _could_ stand up to the task. Give them the care needed to let them rest and be at their best health. Pack their saddles and make everything ready as much as possible without putting the saddles on the leapers' backs. I don't know when we need them, but it will be soon. Is that a precise enough instruction, puppy?"

"Yeah, I think so," Fish said, slightly smiling herself. "There's just one thing..."

"And what's that?"

"I'm not a dog, sir, and I know ya' haven't forgotten my name, so would ya' mind _not_ calling me 'puppy'?"

Sig's remaining biological eye widened in surprise before he let out a hearty laugh, subsiding into a chuckle.

"What?" Fish asked, having a hard time not joining in the laughter.

"You're alright, kid," Sig said as he drew a breath to steady himself. "You know, you're the first one to ever comment me on this. It's a bad habit, I admit that. I guess I'm just used to people not caring as long as they know who I mean."

"Yeah, well, _I_ care," Fish replied, suddenly serious again.

"Then, I will try my best not to slip up again, Fish," Sig said and got up from his chair. "You can go now, if you don't have any more questions, that is," he added and looked at the young girl in front of him.

"Nope, I'll manage from here!" she replied and rushed to her feet. She left the room in a run, as if to get away before she could be entrusted with more requests from the king she now was leaving behind.

Sig chuckled to himself and shook his head as he watched her disappear.

The girl had a strong will and courage enough to fight a metalhead on her own if she had to, he had no doubt about it.

It was only a shame she was still too young to serve as a soldier, since she could have made an excellent attribution to the team.

He decided he'd have Karidi keep an eye on the girl and maybe teach her a thing or two when it was possible.

A soft buzz was heard from a fly somewhere in the room, but apart from that, Sig found the palace to be blessedly quiet and calm.

With a deep sigh he stretched his arms over his head to ease a stiffness that had been creeping into his muscles from sitting still.

A slight grimace escaped him as he noticed that the mechanical eye still had a grain of sand stuck between the skin and the metal somewhere close to his ear.

He really should see to that it got fixed.

Sig paused in his movements for a moment, thinking about all that had happened during the day and what had been said about the situation up until now.

Some pieces of the puzzle was missing, but he was starting to see a pattern, and adding the conclusion Keira had come up with, the pattern got a bit clearer still.

If someone, like the sage siblings Keira and the boys had known, was obsessed with the power brought by dark eco and started to nurture the thought of world domination, it wasn't all too hard to find the logic in why this person would be interested in the ancient weapon hidden beneath the ground of Spargus, if he or she ever got hold of the information about it.

And since the metalheads were practically dark eco come to life, those beasts were easy to control for someone controlling the substance mentioned and they'd make good subjects to use as soldiers.

Sig didn't find it hard to believe that the coms were somehow affected by the one controlling the metalheads; how or why he couldn't fully figure out, but that didn't matter at the moment.

What mattered was what Keira had pointed out earlier; just like Jak and Daxter, those beasts were probably trying to get to the weapon first.

And neither Jak, nor Daxter, had returned from the catacombs into which they went more than four hours ago.

Something wasn't right.

Sig tried to shove away his worry and headed for the elevator.

Since the boys didn't have any way of sending a message when they were back, Sig decided it wouldn't hurt if he took a stroll down to the beach to check on the opening through which his friends had gone and were expected to return through.

After all, they could be in the need of some help.

On his way out of the palace he stopped to get his peace maker and a small box containing a field first-aid kit.

Just in case.

-----


	29. To lose

"Ya don't happen to have enough of that white stuff in ya' to get all fly-ready and glowing, do ya'?" Daxter said as he looked down into the dark abyss of the hole in the floor.

They'd stopped as they'd reached the spot where Jak had fallen through the floor and found the light eco vent.

The hole was still there, a fact they'd both forgotten all about as they'd done their best to escape from the death trap that the underground corridors represented when metalheads could still be lurking in the shadows of every new turn they took.

"I don't think so, Dax. I'm not even sure I have any eco at all left," Jak said and looked at the gap in front of him, trying to figure out the width of it.

He knew he could probably make the jump with a little speed, but he wasn't too sure whether Dax would have as good a chance as him.

"Ya' think we could jump it?" Daxter asked with an obvious uncertainty and made his own measurements of the distance they'd have to cross to get safely to the other side.

"I mean, this is the last thing stopping us, right? We can't turn around here and try for the labyrinth. I'm almost positive that's where we'll find the metalheads, mark my words," he argued with confidence.

Jak looked at him through the lashes of his half closed eyes and couldn't stop himself from smiling.

The red hair was in a worse mess than usual and his pale freckled face was smeared with dirt and dust. But even in the fading red light, Daxter looked just the way Jak had always pictured him in his mind.

Daxter was the embodiment of defiance, cockiness and downright rudeness, but also equipped with a warmth of heart showing in his clear blue eyes. Warmth that Jak knew could melt away even the darkest and most painful of memories in the mere act of a smile.

"I say we can make it," Daxter continued after a while in a try to convince himself more than Jak. "What do ya' say?"

Jak opened his eyes fully and looked at him straight on, the smile still on his face.

"Well, there's nothing wrong with your self confidence, is there?" he said softly and almost couldn't hold in a chuckle as Daxter's face turned a slight shade of red.

"Why should there be? We're the great demolition duo, remember? Nothing can take us down and no one will ever defeat us, right?"

Jak only shook his head slowly and backed a few steps away from the edge of the pit.

"I know _I_ can make it, but I'm not so sure about you, Dax. I can't carry you."

Daxter rolled his eyes at this.

"Well, _duh_! Of course ya' can't. And I think I can make the jump."

"Are you sure?"

"Don't ya' trust me? Have a little faith, buddy! I'm not two feet tall anymore and what better is; my legs are working splendidly fine since my fuzz-days of running and jumping up your shoulder!"

Jak thought about this and had to agree that his friend had a point, but it still didn't feel good to leave him on his own, even if it was only for a few seconds.

"Alright, but I'll go first anyway, so that _if_ something would go wrong, I can reach out and grab you," Jak said finally and Daxter nodded at this.

"Makes sense to me," he said and stepped away to give Jak some space for the jump.

The act of jumping across was quickly done and as he landed in a roll on the other side, Jak figured there shouldn't be any problems for Daxter either.

"Make some room for me to land, 'cause here I come!" the redhead called out as he backed off to build up a little speed to push him further through the air in the jump.

A hundred thoughts of panic went through Jak's head during the seconds Daxter was airborne; all of them gone as he landed safely, even a few feet further from the edge than Jak had landed.

Daxter took a couple of unsteady steps forward before he turned towards Jak with a beaming smile and lifted chest.

"Now who's the best, huh? I totally beat ya'!" he boasted with a loud voice, completely oblivious of the lurking metalheads that were still somewhere in the catacombs with them.

"Yeah, you're the best, Dax," Jak said in a warm voice and patted his shoulder as he passed him by. "Now let's get out of this place before the metalheads finds us again."

Daxter didn't have to be told about this twice.

They had almost reached the chamber where they'd entered and could hear the sounds of the flowing water echo off the walls some way ahead of them, when the red light of the wall signs flickered and finally went out completely.

Jak instantly stopped in his steps and grabbed a hold on one of Daxter's arms so that he wouldn't walk off and lose his way in the sudden pitch black darkness.

"Don't move, Dax," he whispered as his senses started to tingle and send him a warning of something dangerous coming their way. "Do you still have your torch with you?"

Daxter started to search the pockets at his belt to find the metallic cylinder making out the electrical torch they'd brought with them.

Having lost his own torch down in the pit earlier, Jak only had to trust Daxter to have kept his own.

"Found it!" Daxter exclaimed eagerly and flicked on the switch, sending a beam of clear white and yellowish light out in the darkness, pointing out a way for them to follow.

"Lead the way," Jak said and followed Daxter the rest of the way to the chamber they were heading for.

As they entered the room, a sudden movement in the shadows surrounding them made Jak flinch.

"Dax!" he hissed and reached out for his friend's arm, but in the same instant, something invisible smacked into him from behind, sending him down hard on the floor.

Jak saw Daxter turn around with a worried face, before he as well was shoved off his feet, losing the torch as he fell. The beam of light shook roughly as the torch hit the ground some way off, and then flickered before it died.

With a roar called forth by his anxiety for the safety of his friend, Jak pushed himself up on his feet and made a move at the metalhead that had pushed him down.

Having no way to tell where the beast was standing, Jak had no idea where to aim and as he tried to find the telling yellow glimmer of the skull gem, he could hear Daxter struggle to get away from his attacker as well.

"Head for the water, Dax! We can't fight them without light!"

"Gotcha'!" Daxter panted somewhere to the right of him.

As Jak finally caught the glimmer of the gem, the beast made a move and managed to hit him head on with a powerful blow into his solar plexus, sending him flying through the air and landed him hard into the pool of cold water that connected the chamber with the outside world.

Jak struggled to stay conscious and got his head above the surface just as something else hit the water near him.

"Dax?" he called out as soon as he could draw a breath, but as his friend answered the call, it came from a spot somewhere in front of him, not from where he'd heard the water splash.

"Jak! I can't get past this bugger!"

"Just try to hold on and I'll be with you in a moment!" Jak called back the moment before he was pulled back down beneath the surface by the metalhead that had followed him down into the pool.

Bubbles of precious air rushed past his ears in an overwhelming thunder as he was dragged along the bottom by the beast that had caught his legs.

This wasn't right.

Metalheads didn't hunt like this; they didn't kill for sports or in vengeance.

Most importantly they didn't plan attacks of this kind.

Jak moved about to try and ease the monster's grip on him, but without success.

He was starting to feel the effects of being without air for too long a time and focused harder on trying to stay awake.

Then, just as he was on the verge of unconsciousness, the metalhead let go and left the water without him.

With a desperate summoning of strength, Jak pushed himself upwards and broke the surface as coloured dots started to fill his vision.

The lack of air thundered against the inside of his temples as he drew a shallow breath and managed to get a hold of the edge of the pool before he sunk back under the surface.

His heart was pounding hard and loud in his ears and his mind was sending him flashes of light and painful remembrance as his every nerve screamed out a sense of déjà vu he didn't want to experience.

He couldn't hear Daxter.

As he tried to make a move he struggled hard to keep his senses together.

This wasn't happening, not again. Not like this.

"No..." he whispered weakly as he tried to climb over the edge with trembling arms.

Then the final blow hit him.

But it wasn't a physical one.

_" You want him? He's still alive and well. For now."_

Jak almost lost his grip of the stone floor as the voice intruded on his mind.

_"If you want him back you only have to come for him. We'll make a fair trade with you. The weapon for your friend. If you don't bring the weapon..."_

Fear was eating away at his heart with every word spoken to him as images of Daxter's severed body filled his mind.

_"...we'll just have to get creative. You'll find us in the deepest parts of the cave at the foot of the Citadel Mountains. I believe you know where it is..."_

Jak grimaced from the pain in his lungs as he drew another forced breath and grasped harder at the edge so that he wouldn't fall back into the water.

He didn't trust his own strength enough to chance on swimming at the moment.

Jak remembered the cave mentioned, knowing it had to be _that_ specific cave, the irony of it all hitting him with a full force.

He'd lost him again.

Jak had to bite his tongue to stay focused on the fact that Daxter was still alive.

_"Try to get here as soon as possible, _hero_, or we won't be responsible for what happens when we get bored. We'll give you three days to travel. Beyond that, well, you figure out the result yourself."_

A silent laughter was heard, making him dizzy with its impossible echoes.

_"We'll be waiting for you."_

Jak could feel his mind starting to drift as the pressure on his body and psyche was put to its limits.

As he slid further into the water without being able to stop the movement, he finally lost his hold of the fear and pain filling him up emotionally.

_I've lost him... I failed him..._ he thought drowsily as the water closed over him.

He could see a purple light shoot through the air somewhere above the surface, followed by a vibration going through the water as pieces of rock landed around him. He tried to dodge it, to get away, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get his limbs to move.

The first swallow of water got down his air-pipe just as he could make out the movement of someone coming towards him in the water.

A strong hand grabbed on to his collar and pulled him upwards, but before his face even broke the surface his world went black as he gave in to unconsciousness.

.......


	30. To do what is needed

_Wow, I'm on a roll now! Three chapters in three days... XD Oh, and thanx a mill for all the encouraging reviews you guys have given me so far! It means a lot for me to get response on what I do. It's what keeps me going on writing! So you just keep reading and I'll do my best to keep up with the updating! ;)_

_Love / Silverspegel_

* * *

Sig was straining every facial muscle he had in order not to scream out loud.

He had walked down to the shore, feeling a little stupid for having brought the peace maker with him and he'd been telling himself that he worried too much.

One peak at the opening had been enough to tell him what he'd already known from before; that it was too small for him to enter through. But he hadn't been able to get rid of the feeling in his mid-body regions, urging him on and telling him to hurry.

Being a former wasteland warrior, Sig was a man of instinct.

He knew to trust his intuition, especially when it came to keeping himself and those he cared for alive.

The sounds of the ocean roaring as the waves crashed onto the shore hadn't calmed him down either, on the contrary, it had made him even more restless as the minutes passed by without a sign of life from inside the cave.

Sig had made up his mind even before five minutes had passed.

As he'd charged up the powerful gun, he'd backed away a few steps so that he wouldn't be hit by the debris. It took two blasts to get the opening big enough, and by then a crowd had started to gather some way off, but Sig had ignored them, having far more important things to worry about as far as he'd seen it.

Once inside, Sig had moved swiftly through the water, careful to keep the gun above the surface as he kept charging it in case it would be needed further up ahead of him.

As he'd faced the solid wall at the end of the tunnel, he'd searched all over for an entrance, without luck. Just as he'd decided to turn around and look for another way to get ahead, he'd heard the muffled sounds of battle from somewhere on the other side of the wall. He'd stopped in his movement to locate the more exact direction from where the sound was let through.

When he'd figured out the only possible location of an entrance had to be under the water, Sig hadn't paused even a second before he'd aimed at the wall a bit above the located entrance.

The first hit had almost sent him some steps backwards as the shot bounced off the rock wall.

Charging up again had taken what had seemed like forever to his stressed mind, but as he hit the wall a second time, a crack had been created which at the third blast broke through to the other side.

Sig had charged forward, feeling he had no time to waste.

As he'd entered the room on the other side, he'd noticed that it was empty, save for one person.

With his heart almost stopping in his chest at the sight, he'd thrown his gun and torch recklessly up on the floor beside the pool to get as fast as possible to the man lying immovable in the water, sinking towards the bottom.

He'd managed to grab a hold of the shirt and, using all his arm strength, he'd pulled him up to get the head above the surface before it was too late.

When he got Jak up on the stone floor he noticed that the young man wasn't breathing and started to do what he could to get his lungs working again.

"Come on, chilli, don't you dare give up on me now!" he muttered in between the shared breaths.

"Don't die on me, Jak, please..."

The words were forced out through hard clenched teeth as he checked the young man's pulse with a rising worry.

There were not many people in the world that Sig cared deeply for.

Sure, he felt proud over his soldiers and he did his best to protect anyone in need of his help, but he actually didn't get close with people.

The first exception had been Damus. The second one turned out to be Damus' own son.

Damus had been more or less like a close uncle or cousin to Sig. Dependable, strict and caring. When he'd died, Sig had felt heartbroken for a long time to not be able to turn to him anymore.

Jak on the other hand, had turned out to become even closer to his heart. He was like the younger brother Sig had always wanted as a child, but never had. He'd become a brother, a fellow soldier he could trust with his life and a friend he'd risk his own life to save.

And right now he was starting to think he was about to lose that friend.

"Damn it, Jak! Don't _do_ this!" he shouted out as he gave the other man's chest another hard push.

As if by a miracle, water suddenly bubbled up through Jak's mouth and he coughed, grimacing at the aching in his body as he came to.

Relieved beyond words to find his friend breathing again, Sig sat back for a moment as he tried to get a grip on himself while the emotions swelled over in his chest.

"Good lords chilli, you really had me worried there," he said slowly and helped Jak sit up as soon as he opened his eyes.

Jak carefully put a hand to his head as a nauseating dizziness came over him.

"I... What...?" he mumbled, for a moment not being able to recollect anything at all about where he was or why. Then the memory slowly came back to him as his mind was getting back in action. "Oh..." he said in a low voice as he started to put the memories together.

"Do you care to tell me how you got into the water like that?" Sig said after a while, pointing at the dark pool behind his back. It was only now Jak noticed that there was an electrical torch lying on the ground some way off and lighting up the place.

"Metalheads came...invisible... I was... exhausted. Couldn't fight them off. A voice..." Jak started to say slowly, forcing the words through the sour throat with a raspy voice. Then he realised the full meaning of his memories and almost broke down completely as the truth dawned upon him.

"Dax!" he whispered out loud, his voice filled to the brim with a heartbreaking pain.

Sig leaned forward and gently put an arm around his shoulders.

"We'll get him back, chilli, you'll see. Don't you worry about that," he assured him in a soft voice, wishing badly he could take away the pain from his friend's voice.

Jak was almost as badly wrecked as he'd been those first days after he'd gotten back to Spargus believing his friend was dead.

Sig didn't know just how much more pressure Jak's mental health could stand, but he was sure the limit of it was very close to be reached.

"We'll need to get you out of here now, if we're to do anything at all. Ya' with me on that, cherry?"

Jak nodded in silence and welcomed the help he was offered to get on his feet.

As they stumbled out of the opening some minutes later, Jak more or less being carried by Sig, they met with a slightly agitated Karidi. Not far behind her, Jinx came trotting down the slope leading from the street to the sandy beach.

"Sir, what in the name of the precursors were you thinking?" the dark woman burst out in anger as soon as she spotted him.

But her temper cooled off quickly, when she discovered Jak and the state he was in.

"As you can see, I couldn't wait for assistance once I realised something was wrong. Notify the medic that I'll want him to come to the palace," Sig said with a strained voice. "And make sure he brings some light eco, since it worked last time."

Karidi gave a short nod and took off into a dead run towards the whereabouts of the monk.

Jinx turned to look as she went past him and then continued to make his way to Sig with a slightly puzzled expression in his face.

"She sure got some speed under her soles," he commented as he got to Sig.

"With good reason," was all Sig said to this and kept on going in the direction of the palace, dragging Jak along.

Jinx took one long look on the young warrior hanging with his arm over the king's shoulder, and suddenly a shade of seriousness swept over his face.

Jak opened his heavy eyes as he felt someone take his other arm and as he looked up at the person taking the load off Sig, he had trouble recognising him.

"Jinx?" he whispered in a broken voice as he puzzled together his memories.

The blond man shot him a crooked smile and winked.

"Yep. Just hang in there Goldie, and I'll get you safely to the palace," he said and hoisted Jak up a bit by grabbing a hold of his belt. "And I'd appreciate if ya' don't go and die on me now, ya' hear?"

"Sure thing," Jak mumbled sluggishly and tried as hard as he could to stay conscious as the trio walked through the sand.

Somewhere half-way someone presented a stretcher and once Jak was laid upon it he could no longer stay awake.

The next time he woke up, it was to the distinct blueish glow of white eco surrounding him, and the warmth streaming through him from a spot on his chest told him there was a crystal of the substance resting upon that spot.

"You had me worried for a while there, cherry," Sig's familiar voice broke the silence surrounding him and he redirected his eyes from the ceiling to find him sitting on a stool at the foot of his bed.

Jak grimaced as he tried to move. His entire body seemed made up of nothing but sore muscles, but at least he was alive and, most importantly, healed.

"I think you should try to lie down a little while longer, if you don't mind," a monk said from somewhere to the left.

Jak looked at him as if he'd told him to get in behind bars at the Haven City prison for another year or so.

He did _not _want to stay in bed any longer than necessary.

He had to get to Daxter.

Had to save him.

He defied the recommendation to stay put and dragged himself up into a sitting position, grabbing the crystal of white eco in his hands as he did.

Something was bugging him as he thought about the voice that had spoken to him back in the catacombs.

Something important.

The voice had sounded so familiar, like a distant memory from way back. But he couldn't place it, and that annoyed him something fierce.

Without knowing how it had happened, Jak suddenly found himself drawing more energy from the crystal, and the glowing got more intense than before as he could feel the raging of the eco powers flooding into him.

"Jak...?"

Kiera's voice broke the trance he'd gotten into when listening to the flow of energy inside him, and he dropped the crystal as if it had burned him.

The monk barely made it as he threw himself for the precious crystal and caught it before it hit the floor.

Jak stared at his hands, not knowing what had happened.

Something was changing inside of him and it was happening fast. He just couldn't get what it was or why, but the eco seemed to react differently now when he came in contact with it, than it did before.

"Jak? You ok?" Keira asked again, closer this time.

Finally Jak blinked and looked up at her and Sig as they stood right beside him.

With a start he got down from the bed and widened the distance between them.

"I'm fine. Just...need some time to breathe," he said with a voice more sharp than intended and saw Keira wince as if she'd been hit across the face.

With a deep sigh Jak shook his head.

"Sorry... I don't... I'm just a little wired up," he said slowly and looked at her. "I didn't mean to sound harsh."

Keira forced a smile upon her face and put up her hand, waving off the comment.

"It's ok. Sig filled me in on everything while you were... healing up. You're worried about Daxter, it's more than understandable if you feel a little off."

Jak nodded slowly, but as Sig stepped forward, he automatically took another step backwards and nearly hit the back of his head in the wall behind him.

Sig stopped and scanned him with a worried expression.

"Are you sure you're all right, cherry? I won't hurt you if that's what you're thinking."

Jak shook his head and looked up at him.

"It's not that I don't trust _you_ Sig. I simply don't trust _me_."

"What're you talking about?" Jinx's voice carried through the room and soon the bomber stood at the other side of the bed, eyes fixed at Jak.

"Jinx, don't..." Jak started, but Jinx cut him off sharply by hitting the mattress hard with one of his fists, making the others jerk in surprise.

"Don't bother tellin' me to get off it, 'cause I'm just about done tryin' to get some info on ya' from others! I bloody carried ya' here thinkin' you'd turn in the towel for good this time, so don't tell me to go away before I get at least some clue on what the heck is going on here!" Jinx growled, face and voice serious for once, making Jak take another look at him just to make sure who it was.

"You know, he does have a right to know, just as much as we do," Keira said slowly.

Jak took another deep breath to focus and then started to tell them about what had happened down in the catacombs.

"First off, I just can't get it out of my mind that this voice sounded way too familiar for me not to know whom it belongs to, but for the love of me I can't figure it out. And, secondly, something's been happening to me ever since I got that stone from that place."

"Like what?" Keira asked, worried and a little confused.

"It's like I'm using the eco without knowing it. And just now, I was drawing power from the crystal even though I didn't intend to do so. I'm pretty sure I could have taken in the entire thing if I hadn't been interrupted. I just can't control it! And to be honest it freaks me out!"

"Hold on, cherry, that stone, you said... Do you still have it on you?" Sig asked before anyone else could cut in.

"Yeah, I guess," Jak said, suddenly worried. "I put it in one of my pockets right before we got attacked again..."

He put his hand into one of the pockets on his belt and sighed with relief as he pulled out the object mentioned.

The octagonal jewel still shone brightly with the eco locked inside of it and as he presented it to the others, they observed it with awe.

"That's one nice rock," Jinx whistled.

"I've never seen anything like it..." Keira whispered slowly. "It's like a prism or something."

"My guess is, that this little thing is the weapon we're looking for," Sig said decisively. "Or at least a part of it. You said these changes begun as you touched it, right?" he added and looked at Jak for confirmation.

"Yes, I think so. Are you saying that it's because I'm keeping the thing close?"

"Well, _my_ guess is that it might not be fully activated, but seeing it contains eco, I'm guessing that's part of what it does; controls the flow of power in ecos," Keira cut in as she studied the jewel as close as she could without touching it herself.

"Wow... You're kiddin', right?" Jinx said, but as he noticed the seriousness in Keira's face, he nodded. "Well, then, buddy, I'm not jealous of ya'. 'Cause if what she said is true, then that thing right there is just about the most unstable and powerful explosive I've ever laid eyes upon."

Now all three of the others turned to look at Jinx in wonder.

"What?" he said as he noticed their attention to him. "Look, I know my area of expertise, and I do know everything you can make a bomb out of, if using the right tools. And eco is a hell of a power source if ya' manage to get it locked up." He nodded towards the octagonal jewel that was still lying in Jak's hand. "That thing there, is like the bomb of all bombs and I bet ya' could get some really nice power from it if ya' figure out how to use it. But I'd be careful."

Jak looked at the stone for a moment, contemplating what Jinx had said and turned the piece around in his hand in a try to figure out how to activate it.

"Whatever it is, it's driving me nuts. If I can't control these powers, then I'm as good as done for."

Sig suddenly stepped up and put a large hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, if you even for one moment doubt that thing, you should get rid of it. But it mustn't get in the wrong hands. You're not alone in this," he said and looked him in the eyes.

Jak squared his jaw and gave him a quick nod.

"I know, Sig, but I have to do this. I can't explain it really, but I feel that somehow this weapon was meant to do good."

"Jak, don't forget what my father said about that thing. It should be a last recourse, if ever used! It could be dangerous even to use it!" Keira cut in with a troubled voice.

Jak looked at her silently, begging her to understand him.

_"I need to do this,"_ his eyes told her.

And she got the message.

Jak turned back to Sig with his mind set up.

"I'm not going to just stand here waiting as the time passes me by, so I better get going. Dax's counting on me to find him and I don't intend on letting him down."

Sig only lowered his head at this, thinking through the possible ways to make this turn out for the best.

"I will need some sort of transportation, and I somehow need to get to the Citadel Mountains within three days. Do you have anything that could help me in this?"

Sig looked at him with lifted eyebrows, creating deep wrinkles in his forehead.

"Are you kidding me? _Three_ days? That's just about impossible! It'll take at least four days, if you travel non-stop and at the highest speed possible with a really good shark. There's no way you can get there faster," he told him, worry growing as he saw the panic crawling up to the surface in the young man's face as the information sunk in.

"Unless you can fly..." Jinx added, seemingly as a joke. "That would make a straighter way for ya' and maybe take half a day off."

Before Jak even had started to think about his wings, Keira cut in.

"Or you could use a portal!"

"Come again?" Jinx said. "Have ya' checked that place for portals lately? My guess is there's no portal available in that end."

"Maybe not right at the spot, but there's the temple, right? The monks have to have some means of transportation of that kind out there," Keira pointed out.

But Jak shook his head.

"They don't. If they did, they'd taken me, and later on Dax, through that portal to get here, instead of taking the ordinary road through the desert."

"Well, at least we could ask them!" Keira countered and Jak had to bite down hard on his teeth so he wouldn't yell at her, his exasperation growing with every minute lost to conversation.

"Fine, ask them, but I'm not waiting here when I can be on my way," he growled.

Putting the jewel back in his pocket he got around both Sig and Keira with a few steps, and once past them, he headed for the exit of the room.

Jinx jogged up to him and got a hold on his arm.

"Hey, wonder boy, don't think we'll let ya' go alone on this!"

Jak turned around instantly, and with eyes flashing in a purple-black shade, he grabbed at the slightly taller man's collar and lifted him off the ground, holding him with a straight arm with what appeared to be no effort at all.

"Don't you _dare_ try to stop me now," he snarled at him and Jinx could have sworn he saw fangs growing behind the paling lips.

"G-got it," he stuttered and Jak let him down on the floor again, the expression in his face changing as he let go of the collar.

"I'm sorry..." Jak whispered and looked him in the eyes for a moment before he turned back around. "If I can't control myself, I really should do this alone," he added over his shoulder before he disappeared through the door.

Jinx followed him with his eyes, unable to get the image of the enraged beast he'd turned into out of his mind .

Suddenly Sig was standing beside him.

"He needs our help, and I'll be damned if I let him go alone," the king said darkly. "Jinx, go find Karidi and let her in on the situation. Fetch the leapers Fish is keeping at a ready at the stables and get what you need from your supplies. We're going after him whether he wants it or not."

"Sure thing," Jinx replied with a slightly hollow voice and got to the task.

"Keira..."

"Yes, Sig?"

"You come with me. We'll contact the monks and try to find out if they know of _any_ portal close to the temple that could be of use to us. And we better hurry before Jak gets too far away."

With that they both left the room in a run.

-----------


	31. Tough decisions

_Sometimes I just can't stop writing... Good for me that I've gotten through my homework already! Xp _

_And good thing for you who likes reading a couple of chapters at a time! XD Enjoy!_

* * *

Jak walked fast as he passed through the city, oblivious to the surroundings.

All he had in mind was to find a way to get to Daxter in time. His thoughts kept on spinning in a dark circle, returning over and over again to the images that had been forced upon him by the mysterious voice.

Somehow he managed to get to his and Daxter's apartment and got out all the extra ammunition he could carry. As he left he picked up Daxter's unused morph gun to bring instead of his own that was still left down in the catacombs.

Jak noticed that there was a commotion in the city as he once more stepped out onto the street, but he didn't bother to look for the reason.

For once he didn't feel that he had to defend and save everyone around him. Instead he put all his energy into saving the one person closest to him.

As he got to the gate leading to the garage and the wastelands outside the walls of Spargus, he was met by a somewhat frustrated Jinx, stepping in his way as he moved for one of the faster cars.

"Step aside, Jinx," Jak grumbled through clenched teeth.

He could see the other man flinch for a second, but he didn't move.

"Sorry, Jakey, no can do. I've got orders from that warrior princess not to let you get away until we're all sure that there are no other solutions as to getting to the spot in time."

"I don't _CARE!_ Now _move_ or I'll move you myself!" Jak replied aggressively, putting weight on his words by grabbing the other man's collar.

"Now, don't be like that, Goldie, you're ruining your image," Jinx said as calmly as he was able to. "Don't tell me you don't want to make sure you're taking the fastest route out there now, 'cause I don't buy that. Just wait a few more minutes and you'll be sure to find a faster way than simply flooring the pedal for 48 hours straight."

Jak grimaced as he tried to calm himself down and let go of Jinx.

He rubbed at his face with his hands, trying to clear his head as the other man straightened out his shirt for a bit.

"Now, would you _please_ tell me what the hell happened earlier? Never would have guessed you were that strong," Jinx blabbered on as if nothing had happened.

Jak looked at him in confusion. The blond bomber never ceased to surprise him.

"Sorry for that. I'm... not sure what's happening to me. This thing from the catacombs, it affects me somehow. I can't control it."

Jinx gave him a light pat on the shoulder at this.

"Yeah, I sort of got that part. But ya' know, I'm not blaming you. I don't know what have happened to ya' before I first laid eyes on ya', but Keira told me about the prison-thing."

Jak froze for a moment and then lowered his eyes, looking at his feet as he tried to find a way to erase the memories coming up to the surface.

"Hey," Jinx said, his voice softer than Jak could remember ever having heard it, "you've never done anything to be ashamed of as far as I know. To me you're one hell of a shooter, a mean fighter and above all a trustworthy friend. I'd trust you with my life, you know. So have a little faith in yourself."

Jak looked up, meeting Jinx's grin with a half way smile, weighed down by the worry he still felt for Daxter.

"All right," he said slowly as he straightened his back. "I'll wait a little longer. But don't expect me to like it."

"Nah, I never do, handsome," Jinx answered mockingly and made Jak raise an eyebrow.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Before Jinx could answer, Karidi entered through the garage gate.

"What's supposed to mean what?" she asked as she walked up to them. "I'm surprised that you actually managed to keep him put," she then continued, turning to Jinx.

"My charms never fail, honey," Jinx replied with a theatrical bow of his head.

"Charms, 'ey? Charms my arse. But at least you're still with us, Jak. I'm glad for that," she said and turned her attention to Jak instead. "How are you holding up, otherwise? You looked pretty bad when we got you to the palace."

"If you worried that much, then why didn't you stay around for sleeping beauty to wake up?" Jinx muttered under his breath as he passed Jak and walked over to one of the cars to continue loading it with explosives, which he'd apparently been doing when Jak had walked into the garage.

"What...?" Jak started asking, but cut himself off before he had to follow through the thought trail he'd discovered and returned his attention to Karidi.

"I could be better," he answered her question. "That weapon, or whatever it was that we found down there, it seems to change something inside me, and I don't know how to control it," he explained. "On top of that, I can't control _myself_ either. This thing... it controls eco in some way, refines the power, or something close to it."

Karidi nodded at this.

"And considering the dark eco in your system, I'm guessing the result of this involuntary change isn't all for the good, am I right?"

Jak wasn't surprised Karidi knew about the dark eco.

After all, she'd told him Sig had given her a draft of his past and personality in order for her to keep an eye out for him on the field.

What did surprise him though, was that she talked about it as if it was natural.

"Yeah. You could say that," he mumbled and turned to look at the gate. He was getting more and more uneasy by idly standing by as time slipped away.

A tingle in his fingers told him he should try to relax, unless he wanted something bad to happen, so he tried to focus on his breathing for a moment.

That proved to work for about 30 seconds.

"All right, I can't stand just waiting around like this!" he then burst out and clasped his hands at the base of his scull as if it would stop him from hurting someone.

"Hey, easy pretty boy, just wait another minute or so," Jinx replied from the car he was standing next to. "It's for your own good, ya' know. We're trying to help ya' here."

Jak didn't say anything about this. He knew it was true, but that didn't stop him from wishing he was already on his way.

"Your friend seems to be quite good with mechanics, by the way. I'm pretty sure she'll find a way to make the portal work," Karidi said as she threw him a water flask that he caught in mid air without looking at her.

"Keira, you mean? Yeah, she's good at that stuff," he mumbled in response to the attempted comfort.

Karidi wrinkled her forehead as she watched him from behind.

Jak was a mystery, even more so when it came to trying to understand his feelings towards his friends. He constantly looked as if the world was put on his shoulders alone, as if he made himself responsible for all the bad things that happened to the people around him.

As far as she knew, Karidi hadn't seen him laugh or smile heartedly even once, except for when he was together with the redhead. And now that friend was in deep danger.

No wonder he was tense, but there seemed to be more to it than just that. And just what was his relation to this girl that had showed up together with the explosives maniac?

Just as she was about to ask Jak more directly about this, she heard the gate to the garage open up behind her and turned to face the ones coming through.

"Jak! Thank the precursors, you're still here!" Keira called out and jogged up to Jak, who turned around to look at her.

"We've managed to get in touch with the monks of the temple, and they're heading for their closest teleporter, some hour or so away from the temple," Keira explained as she caught her breath from having ran all the way there from the palace. "They'll send us a message as they get there, so we can at least send you and some others through that way and save some time."

Jak let out a sigh of relief at that news and embraced his friend with a deeply honest "thank you" whispered in her ear as he let her go.

"So you're saying I've been stuffing this car with my babies just to turn tails and un-stuff it again?" Jinx said exasperatedly and gave Keira a look that could have stopped a charging metalhead.

"If you're planning on goining through the portal, then yes," Keira answered in turn, unaffected by the stare. "But don't unpack all of it; it will probably come in handy for the one who'll be taking the car."

------

Daxter slowly opened his eyes.

His head hurt from a not too friendly blow that had been handled to him right after he'd called out for Jak.

Licking his lips he realised he was thirsty as well. His throat was dry, making him feel close to parched.

"Sweet lords of fuzziness... I need a _drink_!" he muttered as he tried to get up from the ground.

As he did his best to figure out where he was, he also realised the place was just about pitch black, save from some odd reflections and lights way above his head.

The queasy sound of a slightly bubbling substance reached his ears at about the same time as he realised he recognised the place.

"No. Friggin'. Way," he gasped as he turned around and spotted the shifting surface of a dark eco well.

He instantly scrambled to his feet and tried to find something in the darkness looking like a possible escape, but instead his eye caught a glimpse of movement among the shadows that dwelled within it.

_"I so hope that wasn't a metalhead..."_ he thought and held his breath in a try to hear the expected footsteps echo in the otherwise silent cave.

_"So, he finally awakes, does he? Our little pet."_

Daxter flinched at the soundless voice in his head.

He knew that he knew the voice from somewhere.

"Where the hell am I?" he yelled out to the darkness, hoping to get a response.

A soft chuckle sent a shrill through him as it travelled through the air.

"Impatient, are we?" another voice asked from the depths of shadows somewhere in front of him.

Once again, Daxter got the feeling he should know who this person was.

"Who are you? Come on! This is so _not_ cool!" he spat out in an almost reflex act of self preservation. "You'll regret this!" he added and tried to not shake on his voice.

"Ho? Did you hear that, dear? It sounded like a threat, I think," the first voice snickered somewhere close.

Daxter now heard this one was a woman.

Warning bells suddenly started ringing in his head as a long gone memory climbed up to the surface.

"If you are referring to Jak, we most certainly _hope_ for him to turn up to this meeting. In fact, we'd love to have him over for a chat, wouldn't we love?" the other voice, raspy and distinctively male, replied.

"HOLY FUZZ!" Daxter squealed as he finally put the last pieces of memory together.

"Now, don't you try running away, dear," the female voice said from a spot close behind him.

Daxter spun around in an instant and retreated a few steps when he saw the woman seemingly materialise out of the darkness and stepping out from the shadows to face him, a slight smile on her pale lips revealing glistering white, sharp teeth.

Some details were different about her, but Daxter still recognised the woman and tried desperately to find a reasonable explanation for her even being alive, furthermore _still_ alive in this age.

"I believe you recognise me," she said mockingly and walked slowly towards him with swaying hips. "All though, I sadly can't say the same about you."

Daxter mumbled something incoherent at this.

"Sorry, I didn't hear that. What did you say?"

"Everybody knows the monkey," he repeated more clearly and stared defiantly at her.

"Oh, really now?" the man said from over his shoulder, and Daxter jumped to the side, grasping his chest at the sudden jolt of his racing heartbeat.

"SWEET CHEEZE! Don't DO that!" he yelled out as he tried to calm his nerves, still surprised he hadn't heard the man come up close to him.

"Now, as my darling sister said, we seem to lack in knowledge as to who you are," the skinny bearded man continued and joined the woman in staring at Daxter.

"Yeah, well I'm not tellin' ya' anything!" Daxter replied with a faked stregnth in his voice.

"You won't have to. We'll simply let Jak tell us before we finish you off in front of him. Wouldn't that be a nice sight?" the woman said, purring as she thought about the suggested ending.

Daxter paled at the thought, eyes wide as he tried to come up with a good get back to that.

"Why do you think he'd tell ya'?" was all he could conjure from his stressed out mind and almost bit his lip as he said it.

"Oh, we have our ways of…persuation," the man said slowly and smiled visciously at him, taking another step closer.

"What's the big deal anyway? I mean, why do ya' care about who I am? You obviously already believe Jak will come for me, beats me why, but still. So why the interest in my person?" Daxter asked while he tried to tell himself not to think about why Jak would _not_ turn up to save him.

"Knowledge is everything, dear. And since you seem to know us, I think it only fair that we know you," the woman replied with a slight purr and put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Ain't that true, love?"

"Yes, it is, dear," he answered and turned to Daxter with a questioning look.

"Now which way will it be? Say it freely now, say it under torture later or force it out of your hero when time comes?"

Daxter swallowed down hard, closed his eyes for a moment and wished for a miracle to happen, to take him away and let the dark eco siblings in front of him vanish for all time.

But they were still there when he opened his eyes, as was the stench of dark eco surrounding him.

"Seriously, I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet…" he began and sent a thought towards the makers of his fate, telling them he really hated them at the moment.

--------


	32. Entering the trap

The teleport gate had barely gotten up and working before Jak went through.

Tickling sensations covered his skin as he passed through the vast bluish purple world of the travel space.

Not more than 5 seconds later he stepped out through the portal on the other side of the connection and was met by two monks, one of which he recognised as Keem.

"Welcome back, brave one," the monk greeted him.

Jak grimaced at the comment and stepped aside to leave some space for the one expected to be following him through the gate.

"I thought I told you not to call me that?" he stated coldly and Keem bowed in apology.

"I am sorry for my forgetfulness, Jak. Old habits seem to die hard, even with people such as myself."

A shallow smile stretched Jak's lips at this.

His mind was already working on plans to get Daxter safely out of the hands of this strange enemy.

That, and the fact that he kept on getting the feeling he should know who this person was, took up most of his attention at the moment.

Behind him he could hear Jinx getting through the portal.

"Jeez, it's a pure wonder my babes don't go off when I do this," he noted in a humoured voice as he shook his arms to get rid of the tingling sensation in his skin.

"You brought _explosives_ through the portal?" the monk next to Keem asked in a slightly panicked voice.

He looked first at Jinx, then at the gate and back again with a horrified expression in his white face.

Jinx only waved a hand at this as he lighted a cigarette and inhaled deeply.

"I've done it millions of times before, doodle-face, so chill, won't ya'?" he said as he let out the smoke.

The monk seemed to be about to lose his temper over this comment.

Keem gave him a warning stare and turned back towards Jak.

But the hero had already started to move out of the room, unfastening his hover board from the straps keeping it on his back as he went.

"Wait! Aren't you going to stay for the rest to come with you?" Keem called out.

Jak didn't stop.

"They'll have to catch up with me later," he answered shortly. "I can't wait another second without doing something."

With this he got up on the board and was about to take off, when he suddenly turned around to face the monk.

"In which direction is the cave where you found me?"

Keem had to think for a moment before he understood what Jak meant, but as soon as he remembered the spot asked for, he pointed out the direction and Jak was gone.

At the sound of the hover board accelerating, Jinx turned to look and grimaced as if he'd tasted something bad.

He quickly threw his cigarette down on the ground and was by Keem's side with two steps, wearing a hard-set expression on his face.

"Do you have leapers here?" he asked.

"Yes, just outside of here. We brought a few for you all to use," Keem replied and watched as Jinx took off running after Jak.

The very moment Jinx had left, Sig and Karidi got through the portal.

"Jak told you to catch up with him later," Keem said before Sig even began asking his question.

"And Jinx?"

"He went after him."

Karidi let out a curse at the impatience of the two men.

"What were they thinking? They'll walk right into a trap!" she yelled to no one in particular and kicked at the dirt of the cave floor.

Sig looked towards the opening of the cave they were in.

"Leapers?" he asked and Keem answered just as shortly.

"Outside."

"Karidi, " Sig said and turned towards the woman at his side, " get ready to chase down some metalheads, 'cause they're sure to come swarming soon enough."

With this they both left and the two monks were alone once more.

Keem looked from the opening to the portal and slowly shook his head at all the commotion that had so quickly displayed itself in the room.

"Is something wrong, master Keem?" the younger monk asked silently, a hint of worry in his voice.

"I only fear this will end badly. I can feel something changing and I don't like it. I really don't."

-------

Jak heard the leaper coming up to him from behind and tried to get the board to go faster, but he knew it was already at maximum speed.

"Are you crazy or something? At least wait for the darn back-up to come before ya' take off!" Jinx called out for him.

"I can't wait any longer!" Jak answered agitatedly.

"Pull over!" Jinx demanded, but Jak didn't obey.

Suddenly the leaper was right at his side and Jak didn't have time to react before Jinx crashed into him from the side as he leapt from the animal's back.

The both of them were thrown down into the hot sand instantly and rolled around a couple of times before they finally stopped.

Jak got himself up on all four and pushed Jinx off his back with a growl.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!"

"Not a chance, pretty-face," Jinx muttered back at him. "I'm not letting ya' go out on a suicide mission alone when you can get some nice guns to back ya' up if ya' just wait for a second or two!"

He threw himself upon him once more as Jak tried to get away.

This time the shove sent Jinx flying through the air, landing with a hard thump on his back a few meters away.

"Sweet lords, that _hurts_, ya' know!" he huffed as he tried to get back up.

Jak stared at his hands as the claws retracted into his fingers.

He hadn't even realised he'd transformed until he saw it.

He felt the blood pumping through his veins in a painful rhythm as the influence of the dark eco subsided.

"I... I'm sorry. I can't just wait for help, Jinx," he mumbled as Jinx got himself back to him.

"Yeah, sure, I get the feeling, buddy. But seriously, you'll need help."

Jak looked at him for a moment and then turned away and walked up to the crashed hover board as if to get back up on it.

"Oh no ya' don't!" Jinx argued as he noticed where he was heading and started to jog up to him.

Jak stopped without picking up the board.

"You don't understand, Jinx. I can't lose him again," he said in a low voice and turned around as he heard the remaining leapers getting close to them.

He reached down into the pocket where he kept the crystal and felt the cool surface under his fingers start to vibrate at the touch.

A surge of cooling power flowed from it and into the palm of his hand, making him feel at least a little bit calmer than before.

Turning back towards Jinx, he took his hand out of the pocket again.

"You'll catch up with me soon enough. I just have to go ahead or I'll go mad. When you get to a large cave you're at the right place."

"Come on, are you serious? The leapers are way faster than the board..."

Jak picked up the board and got it back onto his back.

"I'm not using the board," he said and started to run down the sand slope they were on.

"Then how do ya' think..." Jinx started off, but lost his track of thought as he saw the blueish glow surround Jak.

As the shimmer of eco lifted, revealing huge wings, blue skin and glowing white eyes, Jinx felt a bit confused.

The sound of the leapers stopping abruptly behind him told Jinx that Sig and Karidi had seen the same thing.

Jak jumped and, with a movement of the wings, he was suddenly high up in the air.

"What in the world..." Karidi whispered breathlessly as she watched the glowing man quickly put a great distance between them.

Jinx turned towards Sig with a stunned expression.

"Did ya' know he could do that?"

Sig shrugged.

"Can't say I'm all that surprised, really," he said. "Now let's see if we can keep up with him, shall we?"

--------

Jak dove and landed softly in front of the huge cave opening.

He knew this had to be the right place.

The stench of dark eco hung in the air coming from the darkness of the shadows inside of it.

After having given his light form a second thought, he let go of it.

As soon as the influence of the light eco left him, he stepped inside the cave and was instantly surrounded by a thick wall of darkness.

Keem had found him in this cave.

Only back then it hadn't been this dark.

If so, the monk wouldn't have been all that surprised at Jak's news about the metalhead.

The only reason for the transformation that had so obviously taken place now, was that someone, or something, was expanding the source of dark eco.

Jak took a deep breath and felt the weight of the stone in its pocket.

He really could use some light.

Or some other way of seeing in pitch black darkness.

This second thought made him stop in his track.

He knew he would probably be taking a huge risk as he did it, but he really didn't know what else he could do.

He reached for the stone and felt the now familiar vibration as his skin made contact with the cool surface.

He thought of what he needed and concentrated hard on the need.

At first nothing happened.

He was about to give up, when suddenly the painful shiver of power surged through his spine and the stone obliged his demand.

In an instant the darkness around him was filled with shapes and colours.

Looking through the eyes of his darker self without losing control over his body was a whole new experience.

But as practical as it was, he didn't enjoy it.

The dark eco was focused on transformation of one single part of his body, but it affected the rest of him none the less.

All of his senses sharpened a bit and he could feel the other consciousness touching his present mind.

But he was still in control and that was all that mattered at the moment.

When he reached a cliff edge, Jak stopped to look around.

He had a vague memory of climbing up on dry land here, exhausted after the swim he'd forced himself to go through, after the killing of the metalhead.

The glistening jewels of crystallised eco way up in the ceiling were hard to spot through the mist of darkness that surrounded him.

The water surface though, was just as black as he remembered it.

Only not as still.

A slight movement was given away by a reflection of the fraction of light that actually made its way down to the water from the high above crystals.

Jak knew he wasn't alone.

He also knew he was being watched.

With a deep inhale through his nose he caught the stench of the beasts he'd come to hate.

Metalheads.

They reeked of dark eco and something indefinable that at the first encounter had made him want to hurl. All it did now was to infuriate him.

The flow of dark eco suddenly increased in his veins, letting his fangs, claws and horns slowly grow.

A movement from above was the signal he'd been waiting for.

In the next instant, the first horrifying shriek was heard, and the fight began.

All through the tearing and roaring, Jak worked his way towards another entrance he'd discovered was hidden in the shadows.

He hoped this would lead him to the nesting chamber without having to swim.

The metalheads drew back momentarily and a few minutes later they vanished entirely: leaving him alone in the corridors of the cave.

Jak halted for a moment and forced back the darkness in himself.

As he did so, he started to feel the pain of his wounds and realised he'd have to heal those before the smell of blood gave him away to the monsters he knew would be waiting ahead.

Even before the thought had crossed his mind, Jak felt the healing powers of both the light and the green eco set in to do the job.

The stone vibrated softly in its pocket.

Jak knew he didn't have any channelled green eco in him.

This opened up new possibilities to him as he walked on after having once more conjured up the night-vision of his dark side.

If the stone alone could provide him with the power of the ecos, he was indeed carrying a powerful weapon.

A metalhead suddenly appeared from above, having clanged to the wall while getting close to its prey.

Jak felt the corner of his mouth tilt upwards.

It was time to put the weapon through a test.

-------


	33. Old enemies

The right corner of Maya's lips tilted viciously upwards, revealing a sharp fang that gleamed lethally in the faint glow of the dark eco nearby.

Gol's expression was something similar to that of his sister's, only older and far more terrifying in its madness.

Their purple-tinted yellow eyes were focusing on a spot somewhere beyond the darkness behind their prisoner.

Daxter repressed a shudder of discomfort at the sight and tried not to wonder about just _what_ the siblings had discovered in their silent communication.

Instead he tried to use the moment of distraction to test the strength of the cobweb that was keeping him stuck to the stone wall.

The test didn't give much else than sore muscles.

Maya purred as she noticed his efforts to get free.

"Nice try, little fly," she said softly and wagged a finger in front of his eyes.

"We _did_ make a promise to give you back alive, but if you try anything like that one too many times, we might just have to stretch the limits of that promise," Gol filled in and stepped up closer to him. "There are a lot of things you can go through and still live..." he whispered with an evil smile.

Daxter swallowed down a scared yelp and turned his attention towards the far off ceiling.

"I aint gonna' make any fuzz about it all, as long as I know you'll be paying for it in the end," he mumbled as they started to turn away from him.

The scorpion stinger at the tip of the monstrous tail of Maya's suddenly hit the wall only inches from Daxter's right ear.

He could hear the low hissing made by the acid poison as it ate away at the stone.

"You know, as my dear brother said, one can survive quite a lot of pain," Maya said in a low voice. "Don't tempt me to try finding out just how much _you_ can put up with."

"I said nothing!" Daxter claimed quickly and drew a relieved breath as the stinger was removed.

"Hush, now dearest, you'll get to play with him in due time if you like," Gol said slowly and patted her shoulder.

He turned to Daxter with a viscious grin on his lips.

"You might want to know that your friend has arrived already. It seems like he wants to save you after all."

Daxter's mood suddenly dropped to lie as a heavy lump of lead in the bottom of his stomach.

Once more he tried to pull at the strong web holding him, but to no use.

Just as he decided to open his mouth and do his best to distract the two monsters who'd captured him, he was gagged by another spurt of web.

"Silence now, you little bug!" Gol ordered and turned his eyes towards the previous spot of darkness he and his sister had been staring at earlier. "Our dear metalheads have found him lurking about in the cave. He's close now."

As Daxter was forced to listen, he suddenly could hear the shrieks of dying metalheads somewhere far off in the darkness.

The sound of battle drew closer by the second.

"Now, let's see if our little hero can stand up against us this time!" Maya hissed and soon she had vanished into the shadows, leaving Gol alone in the vague light.

Daxter wanted to scream but couldn't make even the slightest sound come across his lips.

They were setting up a trap and Jak was walking right into it.

-------

The last metalhead disappeared in a toxic vapour as the ball of yellow eco fire hit it with the force of the red eco added to its core.

Jak looked around himself in wonder as he absorbed the dark eco that was released at the death of the beast.

His senses were sharpened, his strength and speed increased and he noticed the healing powers of green and light eco as they quickly closed up his wounds.

The blood was pumping fast through his veins, highly saturated with eco of every kind, giving him a feeling of immortality.

This weapon was dangerous indeed.

He stood still for a moment and listened to the sounds of the cave.

Somewhere in front of him he'd heard voices of someone talking.

He knew he had to be close now and he was well aware of the risk that his presence was already revealed to the enemies.

A trap was more or less expected.

But he didn't have much choice but to play along, at least for a little while.

As soon as he'd located the direction he should take, he let the effects of the eco draw back until he almost couldn't feel it at all.

To lose the night vision was troublesome, but he figured he'd do without it for now.

The most important thing was not to raise any suspicion that he knew how to use the crystal.

Slowly he walked forward, one foot in front of the other and one hand to the wall for directional guidance.

Soon he came to a small opening that led out to the nesting ground he and Daxter had done their best to destroy so many days ago.

The gleam of the dark eco pool gave the room an eerie lighting and the stench alone would in normal situations have been enough for him to turn around.

But this was no normal situation.

And to underline this thought, Jak spotted Daxter in the back of the room, stuck to a stonewall and unable to move.

Something turned painfully inside Jak's chest as he saw his friend in that helpless state.

A stabbing, writhing pain that he wanted gone.

He took a deep breath in a try to clear his thoughts for a moment.

Someone was standing in front of Daxter, simply standing there and waiting.

The skin was dark with a purple taint, and long silvery hair reached far down the back.

Something that looked mysteriously much alike a pair of extra limbs was clasped together at the lower back of the person, but apart from that, Jak was starting to remember that he'd seen that posture before...

Then the man turned and Jak bit down hard on his lower lip so that he wouldn't give himself away in a gasp.

Gol's face was exactly the same as he remembered it, with the difference that the skin was a bit darker and the eyes had a yellow-purple gleam to them.

"I know you're there,_ hero_," Gol suddenly called out and grinned widely. "Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

Jak swallowed down the rush of confusion that came with seeing this old enemy again and straightened his back before he slowly stepped out into the open room of the large cave.

As Gol spotted him, the grin widened, exposing needle point fangs.

"Jak, Jak, Jak..." he said slowly, tasting the name as he shook his head. "You never learn, do you, boy? Never risk your life for someone else, you only end up losing it," he continued and stepped closer to him.

The old sage then took a long look at him and let out a rusty laugh.

"My, my. The years have not been kind to you, have they? So many scars, and such hard eyes. And still, not a sign of old age."

He looked once more at him, from top to toe and made a clicking sound with his tongue.

"And you still haven't gotten any taller either," he commented with amusement, as Jak squared his jaw while the anger built inside his chest.

"But enough small talk, right?" Gol went on and urged Jak to come closer with the wave of a hand. "You have something for me, don't you?"

As Jak didn't make any sign of moving, Gol grunted displeased.

"The weapon, _boy_. That was the deal, remember? The weapon in exchange for your dear friend. You choose yourself whether I shall take it from you by force or not, but I'm not a very patient man. I could always enjoy myself with your friend while you stand there hesitating..." he said and made a move to walk over to Daxter.

The redhead was staring panic-stricken at the two of them and tried desperately to warn Jak and tell him not to do anything stupid, but the spider web covering his mouth still kept him aggravatingly silent, no matter his efforts to get rid of it.

As Gol got within an arm's reach to Daxter, Jak took an anxious step forward.

"I don't have it."

Gol turned instantly at the sound of his voice.

"Well, the precursors be cursed, the mute speaks now?" he said in surprise, before the stone cutting edge to his voice was back. "But that doesn't matter. I don't like being lied to, Jak. I know you have it. I _sense _it! Give it to me!"

"I don't have a weapon!" Jak persisted and took another step closer to the old man. "I left my morph gun somewhere further back in the cave and apart from that I didn't bring any weapon here! I came here because you told me to do so to save a friend!"

"In exchange for the weapon of the precursors! Don't mess with me boy!" Gol growled, the raspy in his voice suddenly gone and a fiery glow entering his eyes. "You have it! Give it to me now, you worm, or I'll have you regret it for the rest of your very short life!"

Jak shot a look at Daxter's panicked face and let his hand quickly touch the outside of the pocket where he kept the jewel.

The surge of energy was instant, and with it came a tingling sensation to his spinal cord, telling him of a danger creeping up on him from behind.

Before he could move though, something hit him hard across his lower back and he was thrown through the air, landing roughly on the stone ground a couple of meters away.

"Hello, Jak, did you miss me?" Maya said with an evil grin as Jak got back up on his feet.

Within an instant she was standing close up to him and grabbed him with surprisingly strong arms, lifting him up in a position eye to eye with her.

"My, my, you've grown older, handsome," she purred as she let the tip of her poisonous tail slid dangerously across his face, following the scar on his right cheek. "Now be a good boy and give us the weapon. We know you have it."

When Jak only stared back at her in silence, she screamed out in aggravation and threw him to land some distance away from her.

Then she turned towards Daxter and smiled viciously once more.

"Maybe we haven't made ourselves clear enough. Let's see how much beating the little boy can take, shall we brother?"

Gol grinned and was standing beside the captured redhead within the blink of an eye.

Just as he grabbed a hold on Daxter's shirt, Jak stumbled back onto his feet with a terrified expression in his face.

"NO!" he called out and made the Acherons turn their attention towards him again.

"Well then, do you give up?" Gol said as Maya stepped closer to him, the scorpion tail raised and ready to attack.

"Just... Just let him go. He's got nothing to do with this. Let him go and I'll do what you want."

"Give us the weapon, and he'll be set free," Gol countered.

Jak tightened his fists and clenched his teeth against the rage rising in his chest, together with the fear of losing that steadily worked its poison into his mind.

"I'm not giving you anything until I see him free. I don't trust you enough to do otherwise." Jak pushed the words through his teeth, keeping a steady stare at the two dark siblings.

Maya made a swift movement of her tail and Daxter fell to the ground before he'd even realised what had happened.

Once he understood his hands were free, he started clawing at the web covering his mouth.

Gol grimaced slightly, lifted him up in his collar and threw him off in Jak's direction.

Jak managed to spring forward in the very last minute to catch his friend before he fell to the ground. He put him down on his own feet and with some effort they both managed to get the sticky goo away from the redhead's face.

"Are you ok?" Jak asked him in a whisper and his worried eyes searched the friend's face for any sign of held back pain.

Daxter shook his head slightly and threw a wary eye at the Acheron's direction.

The two siblings were silently waiting close to the shadows, Maya's tail swaying like the pendulum of an old clock and Gol constantly shifting his position impatiently.

"Ya' can't let them have it, Jak! Ya' just can't! They'll destroy everything if they figure out how it works!" Daxter whispered low into Jak's ear, but his friend simply shook his head at this.

"They won't have it, Dax. I'll see to that."

"How exactly? I mean, come on, they're _way_ worse than last time! You don't know what they can do, they..."

Jak put a finger to Daxter's lips and cut him off.

"Just let me handle that. You better get out of here."

Daxter looked at him in utter confusion, which slowly turned into a sudden understanding.

"Wait, you're sending me away?"

"No, I'm trying to keep you safe," Jak responded, careful not to let his emotions spill out in his voice.

His heart was writhing in a stabbing pain as he kept on thinking how this might be the last time he would ever see Daxter again, and at the same time he tried desperately to think of a solution as to how he would deal with Gol and Maya.

"But, but I..." Daxter stuttered as he tried to find a reason for him to stay with Jak that didn't involve a pretty silly repeating of Jak's reason to send him off.

In the mean time, Maya had lost her patience.

"Now you've gotten your precious friend back, let's not waste any more time on the sweet reunion, shall we?" she hissed and took a step forward. "The weapon, Jak. I'll only ask one more time, then I'll take it from your corpse."

"Don't do it Jak!" Daxter protested loudly as Jak stepped up to Maya with his face set in a stern expression.

Jak turned around to look at Daxter and in this one look of his azure eyes, Daxter suddenly could read the vastness of his friend's emotions towards him and he fell silent. Then the expression shifted and he once more stepped up close to him in an unexpected embrace.

"Go out the way I came in. You'll find Sig and the others are on their way," Jak whispered into Daxter's ear as he let go and turned around to face the Acherons.

Daxter finally managed to free himself of the paralysis that had taken over his limbs for a few seconds and started running without another word, disappearing into the shadows of darkness that surrounded the small area of the cave being lit up by the eco pool.

"How touchy," Maya commented as she stepped up to Jak with seductive sways of her hips as she let her long and grotesque tail wound itself around her victim as he stood immovable on the spot, observing her movements."Now, finally, we can get somewhere with this matter. Where's the weapon?"

Jak slowly lifted his arms and Maya loosened her tail's grip on him.

"What makes you think I've still got it on me?" he asked her with a steady voice.

Maya smirked and Gol let out a low pitched laugh from the depth of his throat.

"My, my, the boy has got some nerve," the old sage said and slowly unfolded his extra set of arms from behind his back.

The additional limbs were far longer and more muscular than what they'd first looked to be when folded behind the man's back.

At each arm's end, there were a set of black talons instead of hands and by putting the arms down on the ground, Gol lifted himself up and took a fast step forward, putting him only inches away from Jak.

Gol's grin widened, once more revealing the sharp fangs Jak had spotted before and suddenly something looking very much like a spider's poisonous mandibles grew out of the old man's mouth in the same time as the eyes were covered with a blackish purple film.

Jak drew a sharp breath in surprise and tried to take a step backwards, but was kept in place by Maya's tail.

"We're not stupid, Jak," the tall woman said in a lecturing manner. "The decades we spent locked inside the dark eco crystal that was shaped around us when you first meddled with our plans, those years weren't all silent sleep and planning of revenge. The eco has marvellous powers."

"It was a favour you did to us back then, Jak," Gol filled in with a hissing voice, clicking his mandibles together in delight. "The dark eco refined our bodies, made us stronger, helped us survive."

"But we would probably not have been so delighted by it, had we not discovered that you still lived as well," Maya continued. "When you killed our darlings in this cave and put our guard out of work, we did what we could to find ways of getting you within our grasp... and so now you're here."

"And you even brought the one thing that can make us even stronger than we already are," Gol said. "We can sense the energy in your presence, just like we sensed it when it was far away and buried beneath the desert city. We couldn't have reached it if it hadn't been for you, Jak."

_"Now give it to us!"_ The Acherons united their voices in the mental message and Jak had to struggle to keep down the urge to cover his ears at the painful sound that was produced inside of his head as they did so.

Slowly he reached down into his pocket and brought out the precursor jewel, sensing the power of it already at the first touch.

Gol and Maya both stared in wonder at the glowing crystal.

"Just so you know, I'm not going to give this to you. Secondly, you won't know how to use it even if I did."

Jak's statement made the dark beasts that were the Acherons blink in confusion.

"Besides," Jak added just before Gol started to growl from the depth of his chest as the message sank in, "you're not the only ones who've changed."

Jak's skin turned a pale white, his vision cleared up in the darkness and the hard curved horns grew out of his skull, all within a second as he charged up the dark eco rushing up through his veins at the demand he'd sent to the jewel in his hand.

Neither of the Acherons had been prepared at this change in the young hero and as the transformation was completed they had no time to react before the blast of dark eco sent them sprawling through the air and crashing into the walls of the cave, a silent thunder the only sound able to get through the compact air that followed upon the blow.

Jak put the jewel back into his pocket for safe keeping as he turned to face the closest of the Acherons.

He knew they wouldn't go down that easily.

After all, the darkness was a part of them.

"Now this shall be interesting..." Gol mused from the darkness as he got back onto his feet.

"Let's play," Maya purred from the other end of the room.

_Bring it on,_ Jak thought defiantly and grinned widely as the enemy made the first move. _Try to kill me if you dare!_

--------


	34. The final battle

_I know, I know; these last few chapters have been coming faster than one can read them, but I have a craving for writing this thing! ^^ And I love writing big fights, exploring the possibileties in explainging all the moves, the sensations... I sort of get a rush out of it I guess. Hope you like it! _

_/Silverspegel_

* * *

Daxter heard the dark blast go off and wanted nothing more than to check if Jak was alright, but he figured he'd be doing a lot more good if he found the back-up and brought them to the scene, so he kept on moving through the darkness of the tunnel.

He could hear the fight build up as he got further away and bit down hard on his lower lip so as not to let out the sounds of agony he felt coming though his throat for every wall-shaking blast.

He knew he had to hurry.

The look on Jak's face as he'd sent him away had terrified Daxter and made him quicken his steps even more as he thought about it. That look in his eyes...

Jak could speak with his eyes.

Daxter had spent a great deal of their shared life figuring out just what the other one had been trying to say, and during the years they'd developed a silent communication between the two of them. Jak mostly being the silent part of it.

The thing was, that he'd kept on using this way for communicating with Daxter even after he'd started talking for real.

And this time, he'd been saying something Daxter never thought he'd ever have to interpret.

Among a lot of other things, the message had been 'goodbye'.

"Don't you dare tell me goodbye before it's really over, damn it!" Daxter muttered to himself as he started running through the cave as fast as he was able to with one hand to the wall to guide him.

------

"Did you hear something?" Karidi asked Sig as she jumped out of her saddle. The leaper reared and in a sudden rush of panic it squawked, turned around and ran off before she had a chance to stop it.

"What in the world...?" she muttered as the others got off their lizards as well.

"These seem a bit jumpy too, don't ya' think?" Jinx commented as he tried to keep the reins of his leaper in his hands.

As soon as they'd gotten close to the cave, the animals had been starting to get nervous.

Sig took a hold of the halter on his own animal and stared silently into one of its eyes for a few seconds before he let go of the now more or less sedated lizard.

"You just need to show them who's the boss, that's all," he said calmly as he brought forth his customary peacemaker and started charging it.

Jinx and Karidi shared a slightly stunned look before Jinx shrugged the confusion off and simply tied the reins of his lizard to the saddle of the much calmer animal Sig had now left to wander freely.

"When d'ya think we'll be getting the back-up over here?" he then asked Sig as he lit yet another cigarette.

Sig didn't even bother to look at him as he answered.

"Probably just about a minute too late, I guess," he said with a surprisingly cheery voice.

Karidi readied and loaded her own morph gun and made sure she had all the brought extra ammunition with her.

Jinx watched the two of them in silence and flicked the tip of his lighter off and on while he waited for them to get ready.

"Seriously, what do you expect we'll find in there?" he asked as they both looked like they were ready to go.

Karidi sniffed at the air and made a disgusted face. The stench of dark eco stretched out to where they were.

"We'll, I'm pretty sure we'll find a lot of metalheads," she noted.

Sig nodded.

"You better have something more useful than boom sticks in your pants if you're thinking about entering this place," he pointed out to Jinx, who simply shrugged and patted a stiff pocket on the side of his leg.

"I trust these babies more than I trust any of those fancy guns you've got, sir, no offence. Let's just see how far we get, shall we?"

To this the wastelanders simply nodded and started walking into the darkness of the cave.

A sudden raspy noise almost made Jinx jump out of his skin before he could localise the source of it as being the banged up com hanging at his belt.

He swiftly picked it up as both Sig and Kairdi had turned to look at him with surprise written all over their faces.

"This thing actually works?" he mumbled a little shocked as he lifted it to his mouth.

"Hello, this is Jinx speaking, who is this?" he said nervously and released the speaker button to open up the line for whoever it was that was trying to make contact.

"Jinx?" Keira's voice was coming out a bit scrambled from the old device, but there were no doubts about who she was.

"Keira, doll! Your voice is like an angel's music! Talk to me, baby!" Jinx responded in a chatty manner that made Karidi wrinkle her nose.

"The connection is a bit shaky at the moment, but I think I've found a way to get past the bugging signal!" the mechanic stated proudly. "Try testing your coms, they should be working now!"

Sig and Karidi brought out their own coms and switched them on, nodding in approval as they saw the green light go on indicating an open line.

"Wonderful, doll!" Jinx said with a smirk. "Is there anything you can't do?"

"Stop fooling around, Jinx! I contacted you to let you know I've fixed the problem, not to engage in small-talk," Keira snapped back at him.

Sig put his own device to his mouth.

"Keira, did you find out what was bugging the things?" he asked as Jinx and Karidi both put their coms back in their belts.

"That's the weird part of it; it seems to have been some sort of signal, meant to block out every Spargan communication with the world what so ever. The thing is that it started to weaken only a few minutes ago and that's when I realised it's not an artificial signal," Keira explained quickly.

At the last statement, all three of the gathered made wide eyes.

"Come again?" Jinx blurted out, and Sig waved for him to be quiet.

"What do you mean by 'not artificial'?" he asked slowly.

"I mean that it's not a machine sending it out; it's a bunch of psychic influences controlling the radio waves, and it's getting weaker, as if whoever has been sending the signal is getting distracted or something."

Sig, Jinx and Karidi all looked up in dawning apprehension at these words.

"Then I think we better break this conversation up and go give Jak some support," Sig said through clenched teeth. He didn't wait for Keira to react to this, but simply turned off the line and put the com back where it belonged.

In one swift movement he swung the peacemaker up onto his shoulder and started walking into the cave once again, swiftly followed by the others.

"I still don't quite get this psychic-wave-thing," Jinx muttered as he jogged up to Karidi.

"My guess is we'll find out what it means eventually, just shut the fuck up and don't get in my way when the fun starts," Karidi answered snappishly and Jinx fell behind a step or two in pure self-preservation.

The stench of dark eco hung thick in the air and made them all feel a sudden urge to hurl, but they swallowed it down and kept going until they didn't think about it, and it became a part of the background.

Suddenly Karidi heard a movement and sprang forward, turning at a corner with her gun ready and pointed it straight at the cause of the sound.

"HOLY MOTHER OF FUZZ, ARE YOU CRAZY??!!" Daxter yelled out in a startled manner as he found himself facing a ready-to-blow scattergun just about one inch away from his eyes.

Sig reacted to this outburst with pushing away Karidi's gun and giving the shaken young man a brief hug.

"Sorry 'bout that, chilli-pepper. She's just anxious to get rid of some nasty buggers that's all," he said in a short chuckle, which faded away the very instant he noticed that Daxter was alone.

"Where's Jak?" he asked sternly and Daxter gasped for air as he tried to tell them everything that had happened as fast as possible, while turning around to start running back the same way he'd come.

"Just follow me and have your heavy artillery ready 'cause you'll need it big time! And you better get running, 'cause last time I checked the bad guys had a big lead!" he managed to call out over his shoulder before he set off.

With this, they all started running through the tunnel, the light of the fire-ready guns serving as an aid to not trip over one another while they tried to keep up with the former ottsel.

---------

Jak felt the crash as if someone had suddenly decided to go berserk across his entire back with a sledgehammer.

All air was pushed out of him in an instant and he fell numbly to the cold, hard stone floor.

As he gasped for breath he felt the taste of blood in his mouth and a stinging prickling sensation from his lower lip which had split as he'd bit down on it hard when the wall hit him.

He spit out the scarlet drops on the ground and cursed under his breath as he felt his strength being drained by the minute.

He was ready to give up any moment now; his body was starting to make loud protests against his way of shredding himself into several pieces by the violent hands of rough abuse.

Still, he felt the surge of power from the crystal as he demanded healing once again.

"Are you tired already?" Gol asked in an amused manner, slowly clicking the talons of his extra limbs against the floor as he stepped closer. "My, aren't you a disappointment," he continued as Jak didn't answer.

With a growl Jak got back up on his feet, blood still dripping from the freshly cut wounds as they healed up rapidly.

"That's more like it," Gol commented and backed off a few steps, getting ready to counter the expected attack.

Jak's dark senses tingled with a warning of something moving behind him and in a backflip he managed to surprise Maya in her attempt to jump him, she instead being the one hitting the floor as Jak flung a blow of dark eco lightning at her face.

But Gol simply laughed.

"Haven't you figured out already that you don't stand a chance against us? We _are_ dark eco!" he belched out loudly and sent a spurt of sticky web at his enemy.

Jak dodged it and rolled over to the side, his claws ripping the floor in a screech as he steadied himself before pushing himself back in an up-right position.

He knew the Acherons' didn't take any serious damage by his attacks, but he was trying his best to buy some time for his friends to get closer.

As Maya once again lashed out at him with her poisonous stinger, he realised though that he would have to change his plans if he was ever going to have even the slightest chance of wearing them out enough for guns to harm them.

He let go of his restraints on the eco-flow in his body and suddenly his dark rage was mingled with the serene calm of the light eco's influence, the intensity of the blue, the heat of the yellow, the absolute power of the red and last, but not least, the inner strength that came with the healing powers of the green.

Feeling his horns and claws withdraw, Jak started to build up the energy of another dark blast, but this time enforced it with yellow and red eco.

As he released the purple fireball towards Gol, the old man was steadying himself for yet another pointless push, and found himself completely overthrown as the mixed energies hit him with full force in his stomach and sent him sprawling backwards into the wall behind him.

The intense burning and aching told him that something had changed and as he looked up to scan the area for the young man, he could see him changing yet again.

"What in the name of the precursors are you _doing_, boy?" he growled as he tried to deny what he realised was happening.

The power of the precursor weapon was more than he had ever imagined.

It apparently could mix the ecos, strengthen them and blend their powers to the wishes of the owner.

Greed for the power this weapon represented suddenly arose, more fierce than it had been before and he rose to his feet as his sister tried to make another move on the boy holding the weapon.

That's when the wings grew out.

Blueish white light enveloped the young warrior as he lifted from the floor in one mighty sweep of the huge wings.

He made a movement of his arms and suddenly he was floating in the air behind Maya, who was taken by surprise as the expected blow of power hit her from behind instead of from where the enemy had been only one second earlier.

The ball of red and yellow fire forced her to her knees in a gasp for air as her lungs felt like they were being burned away.

Gol finally unfroze from his aw-stricken posture at the display of power that this boy was showing them.

Using the shadows, he blended in with the environment and slipped down into the eco-pool, creeping up on Jak from behind, but completely out of sight and hearing, protected by the liquid darkness that enveloped him in its knife edged embrace.

Jak could sense something was amiss with the scenery and as he looked around he realised that he'd lost sight of the dark sage while fighting his sister.

Before he had a chance to react and put up a shield, he was hit from behind by a ball of dark energy and he fell to the ground in a crash, only a few steps away from where Maya was starting to get back on her feet.

The healing was instantaneous and Jak quickly got back up, only to get slapped across the face by one of Gol's extra limbs.

"Why won't you just _give up_?" Maya growled in anger as Jak once more recovered from what had hit him and took to the sky to escape yet another blow of darkness sent his way.

With a sudden impulse of joining forces, the Acherons attacked simultaneously.

Gol sent off another spurt of web, followed closely by another dark energyball and Maya lashed out with her tail so fast that Jak's eyes couldn't quite catch the movement.

The result was a devastating set-back for Jak.

While avoiding the spurt of web, he got into the very bulls-eye of the dark eco, hitting him full on and sending him in Maya's way.

As the scorpion stinger cut through the glowing blue flesh of his back, Jak screamed out in pain.

Crashing to the ground he tried not to land on his back, but little did it matter when Gol got to him.

While the sting of the poison started to get into his veins, he suddenly felt a thundering pain as the wings were being savagely ripped off his back by the dark sage.

Highly ecosaturated blood splattered the wall and Jak fought a tempting unconsciousness that was trying to knock him out as the pain grew unbearable.

Despite his resolution to not do so, he couldn't help but letting another scream of utter pain tear through him as he felt one of Gol's talons stab into the open wounds left in his back where his wings had been.

Yet more poison flowed into his blood and old memories of nightmarish experiments performed in a dark room within the walls of the Haven City prison, suddenly came up to the surface of his mind, leaving him gasping for breath as he tried with all his might to stay focused on the present, to stay sane throughout the torture.

"Just give us the weapon and we'll do this quickly," Maya whispered seductively into his ear as she pressed the tip of her poison stinger to his throat.

Jak forced his eyes open, barely remembering having shut them, and glared at the woman with bloodshot rage.

"_Never,_" he hissed out of his sore throat and spit her in the face, making her back away and wiping her face in disgust.

The green and light eco was already working on his healing process, sped on by the aggressiveness of the dark eco that was now overtaking his entire system, leaving almost no room left for the other energies to work their natural magic through his blood.

Jak slashed with long black needlepoint claws at the baffled sage who'd up until now been pinning him to the floor by stabbing his back wounds.

When the pressure on his back due to this shifted for a second, Jak shot up from the ground, pushing himself into Gol's chest and as he felt his horns digging into the soft tissue of his opponent, the dark inside him grinned widely, revelling in the sound of his scream.

Maya lashed out with her tail but Jak dodged it just in time to make the lethal stinger hit Gol instead.

His sister staggered back in horror and screamed in rage as her brother fell to the floor in a fit of spasms as the poison started to spread in his body.

With a former unknown speed she attacked Jak with the full fury of a wounded animal and Jak moved out of the way more out of instinct than because he saw the attacks coming, having trouble to find any room in the assault to make an attack of his own.

The wounds on his back were hurting something fierce, but they were slowly healing with the aid of the light and the green eco in his veins.

But the healing made him a little bit slower than otherwise, and suddenly one of the attacks hit its goal full on as the long and thick tail swept his legs away from underneath him, making him fall to the ground.

He landed on his still healing back and a cry of pain escaped him as gravel was pressed into the closing wounds, reopening them again.

Before he had time to react and yet again move away, Maya's tail shot out with the stinger ready, driving the poisonous tip far into Jak's left shoulder.

The pain was dauntingly close to the one he'd been forced to endure during his two years in the Haven City prison, under the tender care of a mad man and his head of command.

The similarity with the sensations from that time once more brought forgotten memories to the surface and Jak found himself lost to the terror of those cold nights when he'd been recovering and waiting in his cell for the guards to once more take him out to the room for the experiments.

Jak could feel his muscles tighten as the poison spread through his veins and he could taste his own blood bubble up through his throat, foaming as he tried to cough to be able to breathe more freely.

Maya was standing over him with a wicked smile of sorrow-mixed pleasure as she looked down upon her beaten enemy while he writhed in pain.

With her tail she lifted his chin up for him to look her in the eyes, scraping the stinger tauntingly against his jugular, making him almost choke as he tried to breathe through his own blood.

"Look at the great hero now," Maya blurted out with glee as she glared at him. "You're dying, finally, and for what purpose? _Nothing_. No one will thank you or even remember the effort. You're alone, damaged, defiled with the darkness of my poison and of the sweet dark eco you seem to imagine have been made useful to you. You're a disgrace!" She spat him in the face, waiting for a reaction, but his eyes could no longer see anything but dark and purple spots as he gasped for breath.

Maya gritted her teeth with disappointment and bent forward to look for the pocket where she'd seen him put away the jewel that had brought such huge power to him.

Jak could feel her cold hands search about his waistline and felt a surge of fear that she might find the weapon he'd been trying to keep away from her.

This brought his mind back to full consciousness for a moment and with all the strength he could summon he reached out for the jewel with his mind, and felt the tingling sensation of the eco's waking up inside him once more to do his biddings.

With no time to lose he managed to press his hands against Mayas bent down body and set off the first surge of energy that had managed to assemble itself enough to bring out an attack.

The result was a short, but very intense shock of blue lightning mixed out with a fiery yellow that sent Maya flying through the air and away from him.

It took all his remaining will power to get up on his feet while the green eco started to work on his wounds and the light eco took on the poison still in his blood.

Jak felt it as if the world was spinning around him and he had trouble with both breathing and seeing, but he was standing upright and he didn't intend on falling back down before this fight was over with.

Maya groggily scrambled up from where she'd landed, somewhat confused by the force of the hit and annoyed to the brim of fury as she saw Jak standing up in front of her.

"Why won't you just _DIE_?" she lashed out at him with blood-mixed spittle flying from her mouth.

Jak could barely hear the words she'd been screaming out.

All he could do at the moment was to focus on what had to be done.

He summoned the light eco to transform him once more and with a movement brought the flow of time to a decrease of speed almost making it slow down to a complete stop.

Blue eco helped him move forward faster than he'd otherwise been able to and within what seemed like less than a second, he was standing behind his enraged enemy as the slowing of time seized.

Before Maya had time to react to the fact of her enemy having moved faster than what was possible, Jak let all his remaining reserves of light eco blend with the red, yellow and blue, giving it increased strength, speed and damage inflicting ability, before he released it in one single blast straight into the woman's back.

The force of the hit sent Jak himself into the wall behind him with a crash, and Maya was thrown in the opposite direction, landing not far away from where Gol was lying lifeless and pale from the poison of his sister's stinger.

The Acherons were finally and undeniably dead.

Not a breath or even a single movement of their bodies was seen.

Jak tried to breathe out in a relieved sigh, but ended up coughing, sending drips of pale blood sprinkling the floor with red in front of him.

He felt the sore ache of his broken ribs start throbbing as blood went through punctured and cramped veins.

Open wounds were making his skin tingle with stinging and itching pain and he could feel a sudden numbness spread up from his toes and travel to the region of his oddly twisted hips.

All the broken bones and smaller to bigger scratches was starting to make themselves known to his already overloaded neural system and Jak knew with painful clarity that the powers of the crystal had left him as there was no more meaning of healing up the all too broken body.

Slowly he closed his eyes and tried hard to breathe calmly through his nose while he waited for the darkness to take him into its arms for good and make the pain go away.

--------

* * *

_* Le GASP* Please don't hate me! Only one more chapter left now! /Silverspegel_


	35. The end is just the beginning

Daxter and the others had heard Jak's screams and had sped through the tunnels with the fear of arriving too late haunting them.

But they were shortly met with a small group of metalhead grunts that almost managed to take Daxter down on the spot as he'd rounded a corner only to run straight into one of the large beasts.

Luckily, Karidi had been close behind him and had fired off a shot with her gun straight on into the monster's chest after having pushed the shock-stricken redhead down on the ground.

The encounter had been unexpected, but was shortly ended by one of Jinx's bombs, scattering metalhead remains and dark eco all across the tunnel in one blast, but without making the ceiling cave in on them.

Daxter had barely managed to stay put with the others during the short battle, knowing they were losing precious minutes while Jak had to keep up the fight against the monstrous Acherons alone.

As he heard one final scream of pain from Jak somewhere close by, Daxter forgot all about the others and darted out towards that sound, feeling in his very bones that something had gone very, very wrong.

"Hey, hold it, chilli pepper! We can't keep up with you in that speed!" Sig called out for him from somewhere behind, but Daxter ignored it. They'd find their way anyway, since it was only a straight road from this point.

As Daxter came to the end of the tunnel though, he slowed down before peeking out to take a look at the scene.

And choked at what he saw.

The first thing that caught his eyes was the sick glow of the bluish wings of Jak's, lying thrown on the floor in a puddle of blood.

Next off he spotted the heap of Gol's mutated dead limbs.

And then he finally saw Jak, lying on the floor and writhing under the remaining Acheron sibling, who tickled his throat with the poison stinger on the tip of her tail.

Daxter felt his voice stick in his throat and couldn't get himself to voice out his terror.

When Jak suddenly made a move and the light of the eco blast lit up the cave for a short moment, Daxter was close to cheering and felt a short surge of relief, taken away almost instantly as he saw the way his friend forced himself up on his feet, with blood pouring from several deep wounds on his body.

Daxter heard the others coming behind him, but he couldn't move.

Every muscle in his body seemed to protest against what he was seeing, almost willing it to be untrue.

"Hey, what are you just standing there for? Get going!" Jinx mumbled as he was the first one to get to him.

He laid a hand on the redhead's shoulder and pushed him aside to have a look and froze as well as he saw Jak transform and seemingly teleport to a spot behind the monstrous woman's back.

As the last blast was set off, Daxter finally found his ability to move again and sprang forward as if shot out of a canon, and the sudden movement made Jinx wake up from the daze to follow him the very moment that Sig and Karidi reached the opening as well.

Daxter didn't care about the small risk of the enemy not being completely defeated.

All he could see was the sloped down figure of his best friend lying motionless against the wall, open wounds pouring out precious red liquid by the second.

When he reached him, Jak's eyes were closed and the breathing shallow, a thin trail of scarlet leading from his mouth and down over his chin.

"Jak?" Daxter whispered out with a trembling voice, not wanting for one second to believe his eyes.

He carefully put a hand behind his friend's neck and with extreme tenderness moved him to lie down on the floor, his head in Daxter's lap as he stroke the blood dampened hair away from his face.

A flutter of his eyes told Daxter that Jak had heard him and his heart made a jump at the small sliver of hope that this supported.

"Jak? Buddy? You need to wake up and tell me you're alright, or I'll slap you silly!" Daxter mumbled with a hint of panic as no further signs of life was shown.

Jak then slowly opened his eyes, trying hard to focus before he finally recognised the blur of red hair and the voice that whispered so softly to him.

"Hey," he voiced out, barely making a sound and coughed hard as the breath drawn through his mouth had once more torn at the poison fretted throat.

Once the coughing stilled, he tried to speak once more.

"Boy, that stung," he said with a raspy voice, mimicking his friend's old statement after the first contact with dark eco.

Daxter felt something stab at his chest as a smile forced itself upon his lips.

"This... This is no time for joking, big guy," he answered him and tried to ignore the bad look of the wound piercing his friend's shoulder.

Jak stretched his lips in a thin smile and made a vague movement of shaking his head.

"I... I just wanted to say... I'm sorry, Dax."

Daxter looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"What do ya' mean 'sorry'? You've got nothing to apologise for!" he replied with tears pushing their way up his eyes. "Don't talk rubbish!"

"No, Dax."

Jak's voice was filled with emotion and Daxter suddenly felt the need to scream and shout at the world around him for not ending this elaborate joke upon his nerves. But he remained silent and tried to blink away the tears as he kept his eyes steady upon his friend's pain troubled face.

"I'm not... joking. I'm sorry for all of this... ever happening to you. That time... It was my fault... and this..." he made a movement of his eyes as to point at the world around them, "this time...it's not supposed to be yours. I've failed you as a friend..."

"No, you haven't!" Daxter interrupted him fiercely. "And don't talk like that, 'cause you're scaring the shit out of me! You're going to be fine! You'll see! You'll be up and ready to kick ass in no-time... you'll see..." Daxter's voice trailed off as Jak closed his eyes slowly and shortly moved his head from side to side.

"I'm not..." he mumbled.

Daxter couldn't find the words to express the sudden feeling of defiance and anguish that threatened to burst him open at those words.

He simply stroke Jak's right cheek softly, unintentionally tracing the broad scar stretching from the jaw to his eye. A remembrance of the time they had been parted.

"Y-you c-can't j-just say stuff like, like that and look so fucking c-calm, y-ya' bastard..." he finally stuttered out, forcing down hick-ups, with tears streaming down his cheeks without him noticing it.

"We're supposed to be together, ya' know... I-I can't do anything without you, ya' know that..."

Jak smiled faintly at this and looked up at the blur he knew was his dearest and most faithful friend, his heart aching with the knowledge of the pain he was causing him.

"You can do anything you want," he whispered.

"The hell I can!" Daxter objected and almost hit him in the chest to put force to the statement. "I'm sitting here watching you friggin' bleed all over the place and I can't do shit to stop it!"

"At least you're safe," Jak whispered out and tried hard to focus his eyes as his field of sight grew smaller.

"But...but ya' can't leave me, Jak..." Daxter squeaked out in what sounded more or less like a wordless whining. "I... I love you too much... ya' can't..."

At those words Jak's pained face seemed to relax a bit ad he smiled softly.

"I love you too, Dax. Always have."

Daxter's eyes widened in surprise, but Jak couldn't see it.

He wasn't feeling any pain anymore and though he couldn't see, he could feel the warm touch of his friend's hands on the sides of his face and he felt at peace, knowing he was alive.

---

None of the others felt they had a right to intrude on the moment as they had gotten the situation clear to them.

Karidi had flung her hands over her mouth as she realised what was happening and a needle of pain pierced her heart at the knowledge of the loss she would have to face, all of her emotions towards the young warrior suddenly coming up to the surface.

Jinx simply stood still in pure disbelief of what he saw around him.

The damage to the cave, the blood that was littered everywhere on the floor and walls, and the limp corpses of the mutated siblings that had been the cause of all the trouble they'd experienced lately.

Knowing that all this had been caused by one man alone was hard to accept, but not harder than the fact that this seemingly invincible warrior he'd come to like was actually defeated.

Sig silently went down on his knees, slowly putting down the peacemaker on the ground.

He kept telling himself that nothing could have been done differently, that it all would have ended the same way no matter how they would have done it, but the horror of his doubts on this matter kept talking back to him from the back of his mind.

He didn't want to accept what he knew was happening, but he was going to be forced to do so anyway, and he hated it.

---

Daxter was silent for what seemed to be a momentum stretched out in an eternal track of an ongoing lack of time, while he tried to understand why those sapphire eyes below him didn't open.

Jak looked so calm, as if in a long awaited sleep where all his troubles and pain was finally lifted away from his tormented face and left him looking a lot more like the young boy he'd once known in their shared childhood on the beaches of Sandover. Long before any kind of pain had been known to either of them.

But there was one thing missing in his features now.

Daxter fought the tears back as much as he could, trying desperately to will his friend into moving, into living and breathing.

But he knew it had been over even before he'd gotten over to him.

Jak had known it too as he'd sent him away.

He had said his goodbye.

One man could only do so much, and Jak had done more than what could ever have been expected of him.

Daxter just wished he'd been able to live a little longer.

It was going to be a hard time getting back to the everyday life again after this.

Living without Jak would be hard.

Daxter took a deep breath and finally let the reality of it all sink in as every last bit of his willpower gave in to the shaking caused by his silent crying.

"You weren't supposed to die, stupid..." he mumbled between the hick-ups.

--------

As with all great heroes, the funeral was well visited.

Every friend he'd made was there, even those who'd not really liked him due to some of the less heroic sides of his personality.

Daxter found it pretty darn over the top as even the not so frequent rain decided to pay a visit to the desert city as well.

But he didn't mind it.

The whole world could just cave in on him for all he cared.

He could feel Tess' small and still fur-clad hand pat his cheek softly in a try to comfort him from her place upon his shoulder.

Once she'd learned that Daxter hadn't died, but been returned to his ordinary self, she'd been too happy to even be disturbed by the fact that this made her two or three years of ottselness into a waste of time and sort of unnecessary, not to mention the awkwardness of her still being caught in this small fuzz-covered body.

Instead she'd tried to get to Spargus to see him, only to be informed that someone else had died.

Nothing seemed to be able to lighten up Daxter's mood though.

He hadn't said a single word since they left the cave with Sig carrying Jak's lifeless body in his arms.

Sig himself hadn't said much either.

Karidi had found herself leaning upon him for support, and he didn't quite mind it. He needed the support himself, all though he didn't say anything about it.

Jinx was all but his ordinary trouble free self, but he'd still shown up on the occasion, as had Torn, Ashelin and even Onin with a somewhat punctured Pecker sitting motionless in the bowl on her head.

And of course, Keira was there. Clinging on to her father's short figure and weeping silently non-stop.

Daxter didn't really care who were there.

All he did care about was the one person who weren't.

He squeezed hard at the large jewel in his pocket and felt the sharp edges dig into his palm, but nothing happened.

Somehow the weapon of the precursors seemed to only have been able to be activated by someone from Mar's bloodline alone.

Or at least that's the conclusion Samos had come to after examining the object.

Daxter hated it.

Had they only known about it before, then they wouldn't have tried getting it and maybe Jak would still have been alive...

Daxter was the last one to leave the graveyard.

He stood silently watching the ocean spread out in front of him some distance away.

"You'll catch a cold if ya' don't get inside and dry yourself up."

Daxter looked over his shoulder, surprised to know that there was someone still there with him.

The small girl's freckled face was wet from the rain and her hair was plastered against her head in the same way her clothes stuck to her body like an extra skin.

Daxter snorted at this comment and turned back around.

"Hey, I don't mind if ya' wanna' kill yourself," Fish continued stubbornly, "but your fuzzy girlfriend's getting kinda' agnsty and she's one heck of a fiery bitch when she gets goin'."

This made Daxter smile for a moment.

"I really wouldn't want to be the one telling her you've gone up and died as well. I mean, she ain't all that cute when she's mad..." Fish blabbered on, noticing the small change in the redhead's posture.

Daxter shook his head and turned around to face her.

"You really can't shut up, can ya'?" Daxter said, his voice sounding raspy and out of use, but containing more amusement than he'd expected himself.

"Now look who's talking!" the girl threw back at him with a roll of her eyes. "Welcome back to the world of those who make sounds! Wanna' get inside and get seriously damaged and pampered by a bitchy rat?"

"Ottsel," Daxter corrected her with a growing smile. "Not rat. There's a big difference, ya' know."

"Yeah, right," Fish replied, smiling back at him as she took his hand to lead him to where the others had gathered to get away from the rain.

"No seriously," Daxter insisted as they started walking. "The precursors are ottsels. I've met them. They gave me a pair of really snazzy pants."

Fish wouldn't stop laughing on the entire way back, and Daxter didn't mind it.

He figured he'd gotten his own mission now.

Someone had to tell the world of his adventures and of all the things that Jak had done.

After all, who'd remember the side-kick, if not the hero kept reminding people about him?

-------

THE END

--------

* * *

_Yes, folks. It's the end of a very long tale. To tell the truth, I started out not meaning for anyone to die but the bad guys, but this ending sort of seemed more realistic to me...and a whole lot more fitting to the otherwise so gloomy and dark story. I hope you've enjoyed the reading!_

_/Silverspegel_


End file.
